Hellish Females: The Strange Woman of Septuagint Proverbs and 4QWiles of the Wicked Woman (4Q184)

The Strange Woman of Proverbs can be understood as signifying a type of "real" woman who is immoral that the intended male addressees are taught to avoid. This is also the case in Septuagint Proverbs, but the LXX expands her ability to function as a metaphor for abstract ideas. 4Q184 creatively reworks the Strange Woman to describe a female who functions as a general symbol for wickedness. She is associated with Sheol to a greater extent than any figure from Proverbs. In their reception of the Strange Woman, the Septuagint and 4Q184 have interpretative traditions in common, or at least understand her in similar ways.