Dinah leaves her father’s tent; David stays in God’s
Cyril: …Jacob to Salem, a city of the Shechemites, which is in the land of Canaan, when he returned from Mesopotamia in Syria; and he camped facing the city. And he bought the piece of the field where he had pitched his tent from Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred lambs; and he set up an altar there and called upon the God of Israel. And Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to get to know the daughters of the people of the land; and Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of the land, saw her. And he took her and lay with her, and humbled her. And he set his heart on Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman, and spoke to her in keeping with the young woman’s own mind’ (Genesis 33:18–20; 34:1–3). Notice, then, that while she still loved to stay in her father’s tent and lived there, where he had called upon the God of Israel and a holy altar had been raised, she was still undefiled and kept the glories of her virginity. But when she ran out of her father’s tent, and leaving the holy ground mingled with foreign women, she was at once forced into a defilement she had not known, and was no longer a virgin. At first she was subjected against her will to the pleasures of others; but afterwards she came to suffer this as well, that she wanted to be with the man who had taken advantage of her. For ‘he spoke to her,’ it says, ‘in keeping with the young woman’s own mind’ (Genesis 34:3).
Palladius: So it is.
Cyril: Then let us take what the senses perceive as an image of what the mind perceives, and say this: a soul that dwells in an excellent way of life, as in a kind of tent, will be wholly pure and clean and free from every foulness; but if it wanders off somewhere and hurries to the daughters of foreigners, that is, if it searches out and spies on the life of those in the world, its mind, gifted and noble as it is, will be corrupted. For to those whose aim is to live a shining life, spending their days with the wicked would do no small harm. But the divine David was never found wanting to go outside the holy tent; rather, he made it one of the chief things in his prayers to linger there and live close by, saying: ‘One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the delight of the Lord and to visit his holy temple. For he hid me in his tent in the day of my troubles; he sheltered me in the secret place of his tent’ (Psalm 27:4–5). By the divine and holy tent, I think, he means here the firm and unshaken state of a holy way of life; having, as it were, entered into it, he could not be taken by the passions that wished to ravage him.
Palladius: So it seems.
Cyril: Well then, might one not learn more clearly and more truly that dealings with foreigners can sometimes bring defilements worse than any, even on those who are believed to stand firm, by bringing forward…
Greek
Ἰακὼβ εἰς Σαλὴμ πόλιν Σηκίμων, ἥ ἐστιν ἐν γῇ Χαναὰν, ὅτε ἐπανῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς Μεσοποταμίας Συρίας, καὶ παρενέβαλε κατὰ πρόσωπον τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἐκτήσατο τὴν μερίδα τοῦ ἀγροῦ, οὗ ἔστησεν ἐκεῖ τὴν σκηνὴν αὐτοῦ, παρὰ Ἐμμὼρ πατρὸς Συχὲμ, ἑκατὸν ἀμνῶν, καὶ ἔστησεν ἐκεῖ θυσιαστήριον, καὶ ἐπεκαλέσατο τὸν Θεὸν Ἰσραήλ. Ἐξῆλθε δὲ Δείνα, ἡ θυγάτηρ Λείας, ἢν ἔτεκε τῷ Ἰακὼβ, καταμαθεῖν τὰς θυγατέρας τῶν ἐγχωρίων, καὶ εἶδεν αὐτὴν Συχὲμ ὁ υἱὸς Ἐμμὼρ ὁ Εὐαῖος, ὁ ἄρχων τῆς γῆς. Καὶ λαβὼν αὐτὴν, ἐκοιμήθη μετ' αὐτῆς. Καὶ ἐταπείνωσεν αὐτήν. Καὶ προσέσχε τῇ ψυχῇ Δείνας τῆς θυγατρὸς Ἰακώβ. Καὶ ἠγάπησε τὴν παρθένον, καὶ ἐλάλησε κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν τῆς παρθένου αὐτῇ.» Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν ὅτι σκηνῇ μὲν ἔτι τῇ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐμφιλοχωροῦσά τε καὶ ἐνηυλισμένη, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ἐπεκαλέσατο τὸν Θεὸν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ σεπτὸν ἐγήγερτο θυσιαστήριον, ἀβέβηλός τε ἦν ἔτι καὶ ἐν τοῖς τῆς παρθενίας αὐχήμασιν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῆς πατρῴας ἐξέθει σκηνῆς, καὶ χῶρον ἀφεῖσα τὸν ἱερὸν, γυναιξὶν ὀθνείαις ἐπεμίσγετο, πρὸς ἀσυνήθη βεβήλωσιν παραχρῆμα κατεβιάζετο, καὶ ἦν οὐκέτι παρθένος, ταῖς ἑτέρων ἡδοναῖς ἀνεθελήτως μὲν ἐν ἀρχαῖς ὑπενηνεγμένη, παθοῦσα δὲ μετὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὸ τῷ πλεονεκτήσαντι συνεῖναι θέλειν. «Ἐλάλησε γὰρ,» φησὶ, «κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν τῆς παρθένου αὐτῇ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν εἰς εἰκόνα τῶν νοητῶν παραθέντες τὸ αἰσθητὸν, φέρε δὴ λέγωμεν, ὅτι σκηνὴν ὥσπερ τινὰ τὴν ἐξαίρετον πολιτείαν οἰκοῦσα ψυχὴ, πάναγνος ἔσται καὶ καθαρὰ, καὶ βδελυρίας ἁπάσης ἀπηλλαγμένη, εἰ δὲ ἐξοίχοιτό ποι, καὶ πρὸς τὰς τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἐπείγοιτο θυγατέρας, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, εἰ ἐρευνοίη καὶ κατασκέπτοιτο τὴν τῶν ἐν κόσμῳ ζωὴν, τὸν εὐφυᾶ τε καὶ εὐγενῆ φθαρήσεται νοῦν· εἴη γὰρ ἂν οὐκ ἀζήμιον τὸ συνδιαιτᾶσθαι τοῖς φαύλοις τοὺς οἷσπερ ἂν γένοιτο σκοπὸς, τὸ διαβιῶναι λαμπρῶς. Ἀλλ' ὅ γε θεῖος Δαβὶδ οὐκ ἔξω τῆς ἱερᾶς σκηνῆς ἰέναι κατεφωρᾶτο θέλων, ἐμφιλοχωρεῖν δὲ μᾶλλον καὶ ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι οὐ μακρὰν, τῶν ὅτι μάλιστα δι' εὐχῆς ἐποιεῖτο λέγων· «Μίαν ᾐτησάμην παρὰ Κυρίου, ταύτην ζητήσω, τὸ κατοικεῖν με ἐν οἴκῳ Κυρίου πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας τῆς ζωῆς μου, τοῦ θεωρεῖν τὴν τερπνότητα Κυρίου, καὶ ἐπισκέπτεσθαι τὸν ναὸν τὸν ἅγιον αὐτοῦ. Ὅτι ἔκρυψέ με ἐν σκηνῇ αὐτοῦ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κακῶν μου, ἐσκέπασέ με ἐν ἀποκρύφῳ τῆς σκηνῆς αὐτοῦ.» Σκηνὴν, οἶμαι, λέγων τὴν θείαν καὶ ἱερὰν, ὡς ἔν γε δὴ τούτοις, τῆς εὐαγοῦς πολιτείας τὸ βεβηκός τε καὶ ἀκατάσειστον, ἐφ' ᾗ τρόπον τινὰ καὶ εἰσδεδυκὼς, τοῖς καταδῃοῦν ἐθέλουσι τῶν παθῶν, ἀνάλωτος ἦν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἔοικεν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τί δέ; οὐχὶ σαφέστερόν τε καὶ ἀληθέστερον ἀναμάθοι τις ἂν, ὅτι τὰ παντὸς ἐπέκεινα μολυσμοῦ περιποιήσειεν ἂν ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ τοῖς ἐρηρεῖσθαι πεπιστευμένοις, αἱ πρὸς ἀλλογενεῖς ὁμιλίαι, παρενεγκὼν