I have been a little busy for the past week or so. As a result updates have been fairly rare. However, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to quote Michael Fox quoting Ben Sira on the strange woman.
In my view, the Strange Woman is another man’s wife, whose transgression is thus adultery. She is not a prostitute but a wanton amateur of the sort who “opens her quiver for every arrow,” as Ben Sira puts it.
Nice quote. Do you have the reference? I couldn’t find it right off in AB 18A 252-262.
John, sorry I should have included that. Here is the full bibliographic info (in case any other readers are interested): Michael Fox, Proverbs 1-9, Anchor Yale Bible 18A. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Page 192.
Thanks, Calvin. Unfortunately, the Ben Sira quote comes from a portion of that book that is not preserved in Hebrew (26:12).