And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me:
Ver. 17. And she spake unto him, &c.] Here "the adulteress hunteth for the precious life." Pro 6:26 Her lust, as Amnon's, turneth into extreme hatred. This is just the custom of a courtezan: -
“Aut te ardenter amat, aut te capitaliter odit.”
- Mantuan.
Heathens tell us the like of their Hippolytus; that when Phaedra, his stepmother, could not win him to her will this way, she accused him to his father Theseus, as if he had attempted her chastity: whereupon he was forced to flee his country. Likewise of Bellerophon, a young prince, with whoso beauty Sthenobaea, queen of Argives, being taken, solicited him to lie with her; which when he refused, she accused him to her husband, that he would have ravished her. a This he believing, sent him with letters to Iobates, king of Lycia, to make him away; Iobates put him upon many desperate services, to have despatched him. But finding him a valiant and victorious man, he afterwards bestowed his daughter on him, with part of his kingdom. Which when Sthenobaea heard of, she hanged herself for woe. b So perhaps did this housewife in the text, when she saw Joseph so highly advanced by Pharaoh. The death, howsoever, was too good for her.
a Ovid, Metam.
b Homer, Iliad, lib. vi.