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 Proverbs 7:16 and 4Q184 1:5

Hebrew Bible · Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction

Summary

Proverbs describes a woman tempting a young man with a richly furnished bed. In 4Q184 from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the bed becomes a bed of Sheol, turning an invitation to pleasure into a warning about death.

Passages

Proverbs 7:16

Hebrew Bible

13 So she grabbed him and kissed him, and with a bold expression she said to him, 14 “I have meat from my peace offerings at home; today I have fulfilled my vows! 15 That is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and I found you! 16 I have spread my bed with elegant coverings, with richly colored fabric from Egypt. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning; let’s delight ourselves with love’s pleasures.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Proverbs

4Q184 1:5

Dead Sea Scrolls, Wisdom and Instruction · The Seductress

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

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

References

“... A key difference between the Strange Woman and the woman of 4Q184 regards eroticism, as Jones has observed. 23 Prov 7 is sexually charged. The Strange Woman embraces and kisses a man (7:13). She boldly suggests to him: "I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning, let us delight ourselves with love" (7:16-18; cf. 5:19). The description of her chambers prepared for erotic pleasures echoes the Song of Songs. 24 Song 4:14 associates a woman with myrrh and aloes (cf. 4:6; 5:5), and the poem begins famously with a woman's call to have sex with her male lover, akin to Prov 7:18 (Song 1:2, 4). The woman in 4Q184 1 never asks a man to sleep with her. There is no account in the text of a woman kissing or embracing a man. 25 4Q184 never describes the difficulty of resisting the advances of a beautiful female. In this sense 4QWiles of the Wicked Woman is not the best title for this text. The woman is not particularly wily. [...] 4QWiles of the Wicked Woman is unique among Qumran wisdom texts in its interest in the Strange Woman of Prov 7. 4Q184 appropriates details about this woman and provides a new portrait of her. Her marital status is no longer an issue and there is less emphasis on her sexual overtures. Both the Strange Woman and the woman of 4Q184 lead victims to their death. But the latter figure is more colorfully associated with death than the former. The figure of 4Q184 is situated in Sheol in a more explicit manner than the Strange Woman. 4Q184 offers a more vivid portrait of Sheol than Proverbs, describing it as a realm of darkness and flames. The text exhibits a dualism of light and darkness, with the former associated with a blessed afterlife for the righteous and the latter with eternal punishment for the wicked. Like the Strange Woman, the woman of 4Q184 represents a way of life that results in death. But the conception of death in 4Q184 is different from that of Proverbs, influenced by late Second Temple concepts of eschatology and punishment after death. 4Q184 transforms the Strange Woman from an alluring but dangerous married woman into a mythological figure of evil. ...”

Matthew J. Goff, Discerning Wisdom: The Sapiential Literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 109, 121.

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 Proverbs 7:16 and 4Q184 1:5

Summary

Passages

Proverbs 7:16

4Q184 1:5

References

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