Fragment 1

1 [From her mouth] she brings out emptiness, and in […] worthlessness. She seeks errors always, [and with her tongue] she sharpens her words. [With mockery] 2 and scorn she speaks smoothly, to deride altogether with lips of iniquity. Her heart sets up recklessness, and her inward parts are snares [of the pit. Her palms] 3 are defiled with iniquity;⁠ her hands grasp the pit. Her feet go down to do wickedness and to walk in guilt […] 4 foundations of darkness; a multitude of transgressions is in her skirts. … the gloom of night, and her clothing […] 5 Her coverings are the deep darkness of twilight, and her ornaments are plagues of the pit. Her couches, her beds, are beds of Sheol⁠ […] 6 depths of the pit. Her lodgings are couches of darkness, and in the dead of night are her dominions. From the foundations of deep darkness 7 she pitches her dwelling, and she resides in the tents of silence, in the midst of everlasting burnings.⁠ She has no inheritance among all⁠ 8 the lights of brightness.⁠ She is the beginning of all the ways of iniquity. Woe, disaster to all who inherit her, and ruin to all 9 who hold on to her. For her ways are ways of death,⁠ and her paths are tracks of sin. Her trails lead astray 10 into iniquity, and her pathways are the guilt of transgression. Her gates are gates of death; at the entrance of her house she strides. To Sheol 11 all [who go in to her shall not] return, and all who inherit her will go down to the pit. She lies in wait in hidden places … […] 12 all […] In the city squares she veils herself, and in the gates of towns she takes her stand, and there is no one to stop her 13 from … always. Her eyes dart here and there, and she lifts her eyelids wantonly to look at a 14 righteous man and overtake him, and at a mighty man and make him stumble;⁠ to turn the upright from the way, and the righteous chosen ones 15 from keeping the commandment; to make fools of those who are steadfast … with wantonness, and to make those who walk uprightly change the statute; to make 16 the humble rebel against God, and to turn their steps from the ways of righteousness; to bring insolence into their heart, so that they do not tread 17 in the paths of uprightness; to lead a person astray into the ways of the pit, and to seduce with smooth words [all] the sons of man.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 59:3 and 4Q184 1:3

Hebrew Bible · Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction

Summary

Isaiah describes sinners through their bloodstained hands and deceitful speech. In 4Q184 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, similar descriptions of body parts belong to one wicked woman who leads others into sin.

Passages

Isaiah 59:3

Hebrew Bible

3 For your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with sin; your lips speak lies, your tongue utters malicious words. 4 No one is concerned about justice; no one sets forth his case truthfully. They depend on false words and tell lies; they conceive of oppression and give birth to sin. 5 They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, a poisonous snake is hatched. 6 Their webs cannot be used for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are sinful; they commit violent crimes. 7 They are eager to do evil, quick to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful; they crush and destroy.

740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

4Q184 1:3

Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction · The Seductress

100–60 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 4Q184

References

“... Pace Davies, however, 4Q184 is not one of these texts. Far from a sectarian reuse of lan- guage borrowed from Proverbs, 4Q184 1 is work of extremely careful interpretation that attempts to reconcile divergent ideologies found in two apparently authoritative texts: Proverbs 1–9 and Isaiah, especially chapter 59. The interpreter harmonized these texts, both the connections and the differences, to form a single character. This interpretation answers a question that looms large in many central sectarian texts—why the righteous sin—in the form of a character found in many sectarian texts, a demon. What makes 4Q184 so important is not only the answer itself, the character, but how it gets formed through the harmonization of ideologically contradictory scriptural texts. [...] While the terms in 4Q184 undoubtedly allude to the slippery-tongued character in Prov- erbs, the body parts also appear to reflect Isa 59, adding to the character deceit, defilement, and legs moving to commit evil. ...”

Michael J. Lesley, “Exegetical Wiles: 4Q184 as Scriptural Interpretation,” in The Scrolls and Biblical Traditions: Proceedings of the Seventh Meeting of the IOQS in Helsinki, ed. George J. Brooke, Daniel K. Falk, Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, and Molly M. Zahn (Leiden: Brill, 2012), MS 3, 7.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Fragment 1

4Q1846 chapters

Compare Isaiah 59:3 and 4Q184 1:3

Summary

Passages

Isaiah 59:3

4Q184 1:3

References

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