27
Many have perished, or stumbled, or sinned because of women.
28
And now do you not believe me? "Is not the king great in his power? Do not all lands fear to touch him?
29
Yet I have seen him with Apame, the king's concubine, the daughter of the illustrious Bartacus; she would sit at the king's right hand
30
and take the crown from the king's head and put it on her own, and slap the king with her left hand.
31
At this the king would gaze at her with mouth agape. If she smiles at him, he laughs; if she loses her temper with him, he flatters her, so that she may be reconciled to him.
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Gentlemen, why are not women strong, since they do such things?"
33
Then the king and the nobles looked at one another; and he began to speak about truth:
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"Gentlemen, are not women strong? The earth is vast, and heaven is high, and the sun is swift in its course, for it makes the circuit of the heavens and returns to its place in one day.
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Is not the one who does these things great? But truth is great, and stronger than all things.
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The whole earth calls upon truth, and heaven blesses it. All God's works quake and tremble, and with him there is nothing unrighteous.
37
Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all human beings are unrighteous, all their works are unrighteous, and all such things. There is no truth in them and in their unrighteousness they will perish.