Youth and beauty 

Onan is a biblical hero. What sin did Onan commit? A new way to show your love

a҆ѵnaan Mother Shuya's daughter[d]

After the death of Judah's eldest son, Onan, according to the Levirate tradition, was obliged to marry his widow Tamar so that she could bring an heir, who would be considered the firstborn from the eldest son. Onan " when he went in to his brother's wife, he poured out seed on the ground, so as not to give seed to his brother”(Gen.), for which he deserved death penalty from the Lord.

On his behalf, the term "masturbation" was formed, which is mistakenly associated with the phenomenon of masturbation, while Onan, according to the Pentateuch, practiced interrupted intercourse.

The Bible never calls masturbation a sin. , although there is an opinion of a number of Orthodox fathers that in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor.), under the word "malachia", the Apostle Paul meant just masturbation.

The term "masturbation"

However, it was this text at the beginning of the 18th century that became the source of the name "masturbation", which was introduced into everyday life in 1716 in an anonymous brochure Onania, which spread in London and narrated about the "terrible sin of 'self-pollution', involving impotence, gonorrhea, epilepsy and waste of abilities", as well as in the work of a physician from Lausanne Tissot published in 1760 L'Onanisme... Tissot was a pioneer of medical research on masturbation, justifying the harm of masturbation, based on the concepts prevailing in medical science at that time. He linked disorders such as impotence, blindness, mental and physical exhaustion with excess sperm effusion. Involuntary emissions were also recognized as a disease. It should be noted that although already in those years there were published works that talk about the harmlessness of masturbation, including the work of D. Hunter (1786), the society in which the Puritan culture was accepted, it was Tissot's theory, supported by such famous "masters of thought" like Voltaire and I. Kant.

see also

Notes (edit)

  1. Masturbation... - Oxford Explanatory Dictionary of Psychology
  2. Coogan, Michael. God and Sex. What the Bible Really Says. - 1st. - New York, Boston: Twelve. Hachette Book Group, 2010. - P. 110. - "Although Onan gives his name to" onanism, "usually a synonym for masturbation, Onan was not masturbating but practicing coitus interruptus." - ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9.
  3. Ellens, J. Harold.// Sex in the Bible: a new consideration. - Westport, Conn. : Praeger Publishers, 2006. - P. 48. - "He practiced coitus interruptus whenever he made love to Tamar." - ISBN 0-275-98767-1.
  4. Church Father Epiphanius of Salamis agrees, citing Riddle, John M.// Contraception and abortion from the ancient world to the Renaissance. - Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1992. - P. 4. - “Epiphanius (fourth century) construed the sin of Onan as coitus interruptus. fourteen ". - ISBN 0-674-16875-5.
  5. Patton, Michael S. (June 1985). "Masturbation from Judaism to Victorianism". Journal of Religion and Health... Springer Netherlands. 24 (2): 133-146. DOI: 10.1007 / BF01532257. ISSN 0022-4197. The attitude of society towards masturbation at the professional level only occurred in the 1960s, and at the public level in the 1970s. ... masturbation and masturbation are mistakenly considered synonymous ... ... there is no law in the Bible related to masturbation. The deprecated parameter is used | month = (

Answer by Vasily Yunak, 11.06.2007

3.296. Mr. X X ( [email protected]???. ru) writes: "The question concerns the sin committed by Onan and entered into our concept of masturbation. How should a Christian, from the point of view of the Bible, relate to this and do this story and this concept have a connection?"

Good afternoon, Mister X! In fact, the biblical Onan did not masturbate at all. At least that's not what the Bible says. What Onan did is called interrupted intercourse in modern language. Onan's sin was not in the act that he performed, but in relation to his duty to restore the seed to his dead brother. The genealogy records in ancient Israel were very important, and so that someone's lineage would not be interrupted, there was a law recorded in Deuteronomy 25: 5-10. The Sadukees also referred to him, asking a question to Jesus Christ (and further). The Jews had this law even before Moses, therefore we find it in the history of Onan, as described in. Thus, Onan denied his deceased brother the restoration of his family - this was his sin.

Today it is difficult to say why masturbation is called masturbation. Most likely, someone once misunderstood Onan's story. But you are asking the question, how should a Christian feel about this? Today, scientists and doctors argue over whether masturbation is harmful to human health or not. I have my own opinion that masturbation has a destructive effect on the human body. But I do not have the desire and authority to enter into any disputes on this topic, while many luminaries of science, medicine and theology are still arguing on this issue. The Bible also does not speak about it specifically (unless). But nevertheless, we have a very important text that keeps us from such an occupation: “Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? Therefore, glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are the essence of God "(). It follows from this text that a Christian cannot do with his body what he would not do in the Temple of God. I think that this text is enough to exclude masturbation (or masturbation) from the life of a Christian.

Read more on the topic "Sex, Erotica and Intimacy":

. At that time Judah departed from his brothers and settled near one of the Adullamites, whose name was Chira.

And Judas saw there the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua; and took her and went in to her.

An episode from the life of Judas, the story of which in chapter 38. interrupts the story of Joseph, stands with this story not only in a temporary connection ("at that time"), but also in an internal logical connection: the offspring of the pure chaste Joseph, represented by the strong tribe of Ephraim, later became the head of the northern (Israelite) kingdom; the offspring of Judah formed the main mass of the kingdom of the south (Judah) and, at the end of time, gave from among his own Messiah, who did not abhor to be born of the tribe of Judas, the bloodthirsty; according to the Midrash, before the enslaver (Pharaoh) was born, the last liberator was born (Messiah from the tribe of Judah).

According to the Jewish interpreters, Judas departed from the brothers as a result of the sale of Joseph, tormented by his conscience for the advice given, albeit well-meaning,. With regard to the time when everything told in chap. 38, Aben-Ezra, Rosenmüller and others believed that not all of these incidents took place after the sale of Joseph - in the 23-year period from this event to the resettlement of Jacob to Egypt, since during this period Judas could hardly have had 3 sons from the first wife, "a lot of time" to be a widower (v. 12), then give birth to Phares and Zara, and finally from the first to have grandchildren: Esrom and Hamul (). Judas from Hebron - the last residence of Jacob - and settles in the area (to the west of Hebron) Odollam, in the valley of Safala (later, near the city that emerged here, there was a cave that gave shelter to David; cf.;). The Adullamite Chira here became a friend of Judah (v. 12). Here Judas married the daughter of a Canaanite, Shua. The Jews, on the initiative of Targum Onkelos, understand the word kenaani (v. 2) in a common sense: a merchant (as in), but in obvious contradiction with the context, out of a tendency to reject the embarrassing event for them, in view of the event of their patriarch's marriage with a Canaanite woman. Shua is the name of the father of the wife of Judas, and not of her (as understood by the LXX, in Syrsk., Slav.), As the masculine suffix of the word schem (name) shows.

. She conceived and bore a son; and he called his name Er.

And she conceived again, and bore a son, and called his name Onan.

And she again bore a son [a third] and called his name Shelah. Judas was in Hezibah when she gave birth to him.

Judas's marriage with a Canaanite woman, apparently, was not happy: the unnatural vices that had long distinguished the Canaanites penetrated into the family of Judas, which, according to the judgment of God, caused the early death of the first two sons of Judas: Ira (from Hebrew - “fear”) and Onan (from Hebrew - "strength"). At the mention of the birth of the third son of Shela, the place where he was born is named - Kezib, Kheziv (maybe - Akhziv), a city near Odollam (;); from this only son was offspring. vulg. the name kezib conveys descriptively: "parere ultra cessavit".

Tamar and her two sons

. And Judas took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name is Tamar.

Er, the firstborn of Judah, was displeasing in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord killed him.

And Judas said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife, marry her as your brother-in-law, and restore your brother's seed.

Onan knew that the seed would not be for him, and therefore, when he went in to his brother's wife, he poured out [the seed] on the earth, so as not to give the seed to his brother.

Evil was in the sight of the Lord what he did; and He killed him too.

Judas marries his firstborn, Ira (apparently at an early age) to Tamar ("palm": Tamar's origin is not specified, perhaps from the Philistines), but his early childless death, perhaps sudden, was evidence of his dislike God (cf.).

Judas, based on the ancient, later in the law of Moses, deliberately regulated (), the so-called custom. levirate marriage (Latin levir = Hebrew jabam, brother-in-law), i.e. marriage of a childless widow with a brother-in-law or other close blood relative to restore offspring to her deceased husband, whose name the firstborn received from this new marriage (the custom of levirate, with some modifications, also existed among the Egyptians, Indians; now found among the Mongol tribes), - gives the widow Tamar to his second son Onan. But the latter branded himself with a vile sin, which had since received his name (masturbation); the severity of his sin was increased by his low hostility to the memory of his brother, whose name was to be received only by the 1st son, and by a greedy calculation - to inherit the inheritance of his brother himself. The punishment of God befell him too.

. And Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law [after the death of his two sons], Live as a widow in your father's house until Shelah, my son, grows up. For he said [in his mind]: He would not have died also like his brothers. Tamar went and began to live in her father's house.

Although it is possible that Shelah really did not reach marriageable age, the real reason for Judah's order to remove Tamar to her father's house in the position of a widow was Judah's superstitious fear and the view of Tamar as a woman who brings death to whoever marries her. (cf.), (according to the later Jewish custom, a woman whose two husbands had already died, strictly speaking, lost the right to a third marriage). Stretching out the time by promising to give Tamar to Shelah, Judah actually doomed her to eternal widowhood (v. 14), thereby causing her injustice, which he later confessed to (v. 26). Then Tamar by cunning achieves that which was not given to her in a legal way (vv. 14-26).

. A long time passed, and the daughter of Shuya, the wife of Judah, died. Judas, being comforted, went to Tamna to shearers of his cattle, he and Hira, his friend, the Adullamite.

The term "many days" according to the Midrash is 2 months. The mention of the death of his wife has a direct connection with the subsequent speech about the adventure of Judas (vv. 16-17), which could not have taken place in a married man. According to the usual mourning, Judas goes with a friend (according to LXX and Vulg., Cf. Slav. - a shepherd: mixing Hebrew rea, friend, with roeh, a shepherd) to his Hiroya to Famna (on the north-western border of Judah's tribe,) on sheep shearing festival (cf.;;).

. And Tamar was informed, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law is going to Tamna to shear his cattle.

And she stripped off the clothes of her widowhood, covered herself with a veil, and, covering herself, sat down at the gate of Jenaim, which is on the road to Thamna. For she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she was not given to him as a wife.

And Judas saw her and regarded her as a harlot, because she covered her face.

Learning of this, “Tamar decided to trick her into sharing a bed with her father-in-law and giving birth to children from him, not for the sake of carnal lust, but in order not to remain without a name. However, in this matter there was also the providence of God, which is why her intention was actually fulfilled ”(John Chrysostom, Bes. 62, 662). For all that, the Scriptures do not praise or even justify Tamar's deed (not devoid of her self-sacrifice, with a danger to her honor and life). The place where Tamar sat waiting for Judah is called in v. 14 and 21 Enaim, that Targ., Midrash, many Jewish commentators and Vulg :. ("In bivio itineris") is understood in the sense of a common noun: "2 sources", "2 roads" and so on; but the transmission of the LXX is more likely " πρὸς ταῖς πόλαις Αιναν "- Enaim or Genan will then be the name of the city in the tribe of Judah (), between Odollam and Famna. Here, like the harlots, who usually went out into the streets and crowded roads (;), Tamar sits by the road (perhaps at the crossroads of 2 roads, as the double ph. Enaim and remark of Article 16: "turned to her" can indicate ), prudently covering his face with a veil, so as not to be recognized. This covering of the face, however, was not a sign of the woman's belonging to the class of harlots (Rebekah, at the first meeting with Isaac, is also covered with a veil), and not because Judah (v. 15) mistook Tamar for a prostitute, but rather because of Tamar's whereabouts in a public place and on another situation, which prompted Judas to see in Tamar something like a servant of Astarte or the Babylonian Melitta - qedeschah (v. 21); Herodotus speaks about the cult of this kind among the Babylonians (2 books, 199).

. He said: what pledge should I give you? She said, Your seal, and your bandage, and your reed that is in your hand. And he gave it to her and went in to her; and she conceived by him.

As a pledge of future payment, Tamar demands from Judas those things, the undoubted belonging of which to Judas later had to prove the paternity of Judas in relation to the 2 sons of Tamar: a ring, a sling (skins) and a cane - all this was a common accessory among the Babylonians (Herodotus 1 Bk. 195), and from there passed on to Canaan. At the same time, on the ring, as well as on the reeds, it was probably very early that various emblems of their owner were carved (the emblem or coat of arms of Judah's tribe was a lion, Danov was a serpent, Issakharov was a donkey, Veniaminov was a wolf).

. And he asked the inhabitants of that place, saying: where is the harlot, Which was in Enaim on the road? But they said, There was no harlot here.

The name qedeschah, dedicated (i.e. to the goddess of debauchery), when applied to the harlot, clearly indicates the Babylonian cult of Melitta or Belitta, or the Canaanite Astarte, and in both cults the payment of harlots was brought into the treasury of the goddess, which was strictly and unconditionally forbidden to the Jews. ...

. Judas said: Let her take it for herself, so that they will not laugh at us; behold, I sent this kid, but you did not find her.

Judas refuses to further search for an imaginary "kedesh" (qedeschah) out of fear that the desire to settle accounts with a woman by agreement (which has already received, however, more valuable, in comparison with the kid, things) did not lead to mockery of him: the fact, - together with some other features noted in this story - testifying to a sufficiently high development of moral feelings in the family of Jacob, with all the presence of phenomena that are repugnant to him.

. About three months passed, and they told Judah, saying: Tamar your daughter-in-law has fallen into fornication, and, behold, she is pregnant by fornication. Judas said: Bring her out, and let her be burnt.

Just as the judgment of Judas (single person) over the daughter-in-law (betrothed Shele) on suspicion of fornication characterizes the patriarchal way of life - in contrast to the restrictions of parental authority in the law of Moses (), so the type of punishment - burning - indicates the pre-legal, patriarchal level of Jewish criminal law; maybe this execution was borrowed by Judas from the neighboring Philistines (the Philistines burned Samson's wife for treason to her husband).

Meanwhile, according to the law of Moses, the violator of marital fidelity was stoned (

When Judah so decisively (like his descendant David - in the case of Bathsheba) () pronounced the death sentence of Tamar, although he himself was guilty of insincerity in arranging Tamar's marriage to Shelah, then Tamar takes out, obviously, carefully kept Judas' things by her and sends them to him, delicately, without mentioning his name, recalling the incident (v. 18). The Talmud and Midrash, praising this concern of Tamar about the good name of her father-in-law, at a time when she herself was threatened with death, derive the morality that it is better to die than to dishonor a neighbor. From the expression “when they took her away,” the Midrash concludes that the things mentioned had already disappeared, but God miraculously granted her others like them (Beresch. R. Par. 85.s. 421-422).

. Judas recognized and said: She is more right than me, because I did not give her to Shelea, my son. And he did not know her anymore.

A modest reminder of Tamar awakens reproaches of conscience in Judah, and he (by inspiration from above, says Midrash) openly, publicly admits his guilt before Tamar and that his future children belong to him; moreover, the awakened moral feeling (in connection with the so-called honor naturalis) forces him to refuse further cohabitation with his daughter-in-law.

. During her childbirth, it turned out that the twins were in her womb.

And at the time of her childbirth the hand of [one] was shown; And the midwife took and tied a red thread on his hand, saying: This one came out first.

But he returned his hand; and, behold, his brother went out. And she said: how did you dissolve your barrier? And his name was given: Fares.

Then his brother came out with a red thread on his hand. And his name was given: Zara.

These verses form the epilogue of Tamar's story - the story of the birth of her twins, reminiscent in some ways of the story () of the birth of Esau and Jacob: Zara (from Hebrew "sunrise"), who, for human reasons, had to be the firstborn and receive all the advantages birthright, had to yield both the primacy of birth and all the rights of the birthright to his brother Phares (Hebrew Pepper - a gap, as if contrary to nature), which one of the 5 sons of Judas formed the main line of the offspring of Judas, namely through him came from the tribe of Judah David, and at the end of time - Christ the Savior (;;;).

10. A lesson for those who dare to ridicule bald men

Source: 4 Kings 2: 23-24

One of the most inspiring passages in the Bible tells of Elijah, a sage and prophet who was unfortunate enough to go bald.

What do we see here? Once the prophet Elijah was walking to Bethel, not touching anyone, when he was suddenly attacked by a gang of children who began to tease him "bald." But Elijah did not tolerate these bullying and insults, but turned around and cursed the boys in the name of the Lord, after which two she-bears came out of the forest and tore all 42 children to pieces.

The moral of this story? Do not laugh at bald ones, especially if they are biblical prophets. It is not clear why this story is not included in the Ten Commandments (we can only guess about it), but it can be assumed that it will serve as a great lesson for children who believe that bald people are suitable objects for ridicule.

9. The shameful death of Eglon

Source: Judges 3: 21-25

Ehud is the most insidious killer in the Bible (as well as the only left-handed person mentioned in the Holy Book). The Israelites sent Ehud with gifts to Eglon. Left alone with him, Ehud drew out a sword and with his left hand inflicted a wound on the king in the womb. Unfortunately, this wound was not fatal, and Aod had to strike harder, driving the sword deeper into the belly of the fat Eglon - so deep that the hilt of the sword drowned in fat, and the sword itself was barely visible. It was at this moment that Eglon lost control of his intestines and began to defecate mercilessly, staining the floor of the room with sewage. Eglon's servants waited a long time and did not disturb him, thinking that he had "locked himself in for want." However, having waited "a rather long time" and seeing that no one was opening the doors of the upper room, they rushed inside and found their master dead on the floor, in a heap of their own feces. Meanwhile, Ehud went to Mount Ephraim, where he summoned the oppressed Israelites.

The moral of this story? What's the difference, the story is cool.

8. Onan - cautious but stupid

Source: Genesis 38: 8-10

The story of Onan is so famous that his name even became a household name and served as the basis for a new word - "masturbation", an archaic term for masturbation.

So, God is killing Ira. For what? We will never find out about this. However, Onana is lucky - Judas, Ira's father, asks, even orders him to make love to the wife of his deceased brother. At first, Onan is wary of this request, but then agrees to this eminently strange adventure in order to give birth to the "true heir of Ira." He begins to make love to his brother's widow, but at the last moment decides to "pour out the seed on the ground." This act of Onan so angered God, he decided to kill Onan too, so that Judas was left without heirs. This story served as the basis for Christians' condemnation of self-gratification and contraception.

The moral of this story? As Monty Python put it, "every sperm is sacred" ...

7. Just a very disturbing story

Source: Judges 19: 22-30

In the Bible, you can sometimes find stories so terrible that one might wonder what their meaning and morality is. Not only is this story very, very strange, but it is also absolutely disgusting.

A certain man and his concubine wandered the streets, tired and decided to look for a place to sleep. Fortunately, a kind person was found who sheltered them in his house. However, that evening drunken revelers surrounded the house and began to demand that the man come out to them - they wanted to "lie down" with him. It is clear that the owner of the house did not want his guest to be sexually abused and therefore offered instead of him ... his virgin daughter. But this was not enough for the dispersed revelers, and the owner invited them to be content with his guest's concubine. They generously agreed. Having brutally raped a woman, they threw her body on the doorstep, where she bled to death and died. But that is not all. "Her lord" cut her body into twelve pieces and sent it to all the borders of Israel.

The moral of this story? We hope there is no morality in this story, otherwise it would be too scary.

6. A new way to show your love

To the earth, so as not to give seed to his brother ”(Gen.), for which he deserved death punishment from the Lord.

On his behalf, the term "masturbation" was formed, which is mistakenly associated with the phenomenon of masturbation, while Onan, according to the Pentateuch, practiced interrupted intercourse.

Despite the fact that the Bible nowhere calls masturbation a sin. , there is an opinion of a number of Orthodox fathers that in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor.) under the word "malachia" the Apostle Paul meant just masturbation.

The term "masturbation"

Modern interpreters believe that this passage does not describe masturbation, but interrupted sexual intercourse, and a sin is a violation of the law, according to which a brother-in-law was to become the father of a widowed daughter-in-law's child.

However, it was this text at the beginning of the 18th century that became the source of the name "masturbation", which was introduced into everyday life in 1716 in an anonymous brochure Onania, which spread in London and narrated about the "terrible sin of 'self-pollution', involving impotence, gonorrhea, epilepsy and waste of abilities", as well as in the work of a physician from Lausanne Tissot published in 1760 L'Onanisme... Tissot was a pioneer of medical research on masturbation, justifying the harm of masturbation, based on the concepts prevailing in medical science at that time. He linked disorders such as impotence, blindness, mental and physical exhaustion with excess sperm effusion. Involuntary emissions were also recognized as a disease. It should be noted that although already in those years there were published works that talk about the harmlessness of masturbation, including the work of D. Hunter (1786), the society in which the Puritan culture was accepted, it was Tissot's theory, supported by such famous "masters of thought" like Voltaire and Kant.

see also

Write a review on "Onan"

Notes (edit)

  2. Coogan Michael.... - 1st. - New York, Boston: Twelve. Hachette Book Group, 2010. - P. 110. - ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9.
  3. // Sex in the Bible: a new consideration. - Westport, Conn .: Praeger Publishers, 2006. - P. 48. - ISBN 0-275-98767-1.
  4. Church Father Epiphanius of Salamis agrees, citing // Contraception and abortion from the ancient world to the Renaissance. - Cambridge, Mass .: Harvard University Press, 1992. - P. 4. - ISBN 0-674-16875-5.
  5. Patton, Michael S. (June 1985). "". Journal of Religion and Health(Springer Netherlands) 24 (2): 133-146. DOI: 10.1007 / BF01532257. ISSN. “The attitude of society towards masturbation at the professional level only happened in the 1960s, and at the public level in the 1970s. ... masturbation and masturbation are mistakenly considered synonymous ... ... there is no law in the Bible related to masturbation. "
  6. Kwee, Alex W .; David C. Hoover (2008). "". Journal of Psychology and Theology(Rosemead School of Psychology. Biola University) 36 (4): 258-269. ISSN. “The Bible presents no clear theological ethic on masturbation, leaving many young unmarried Christians with confusion and guilt around their sexuality. "
  8. Stolberg M. 2000a. Self-Pollution, Moral Reform, and the Venereal Trade: Notes on the Sources and Historical Context of "Onania" 1716 // Journal of the History of Sexuality. - 2000. - No. 9.P. 37-61.
  9. Deryagin G.B., Sidorov P.I., Solovyov A.G. // Russian psychiatric journal. 2002. No. 2. S. 76-80.

An excerpt characterizing Onan

But the princess did not listen to him.
- Yes, I knew this for a long time, but I forgot that, apart from baseness, deception, envy, intrigue, except ingratitude, the blackest ingratitude, I could not expect anything in this house ...
- Do you know or do not know where this will? Prince Vasily asked with even more twitching of his cheeks than before.
- Yes, I was stupid, I still believed in people and loved them and sacrificed myself. And only those who are mean and disgusting succeed. I know whose intrigue it is.
The princess wanted to get up, but the prince held her hand. The princess looked like a man who was suddenly disillusioned with the whole human race; she glared at her interlocutor.
“There’s still time, my friend. Do you remember, Katish, that all this happened by accident, in a moment of anger, illness, and then forgotten. It is our duty, my dear, to correct his mistake, to facilitate his last moments in order to prevent him from doing this injustice, not to let him die thinking that he made those people unhappy ...
“Those people who sacrificed everything for him,” the princess picked up, trying to get up again, but the prince did not let her in, “which he never knew how to appreciate. No, mon cousin, ”she added with a sigh,“ I will remember that in this world one cannot expect a reward, that in this world there is neither honor nor justice. One must be cunning and evil in this world.
- Well, voyons, [listen,] calm down; I know your beautiful heart.
- No, I have an evil heart.
“I know your heart,” the prince repeated, “I appreciate your friendship and would like you to have the same opinion of me. Calm down and parlons raison, [let's talk really,] while there is time - maybe a day, maybe an hour; tell me everything you know about the will, and most importantly where it is: you must know. We will now take it and show it to the Count. He probably forgot about him and wants to destroy him. You understand that my only desire is to sacredly fulfill his will; then I just came here. I'm only here to help him and you.
- Now I understand everything. I know whose intrigue it is. I know, - said the princess.
“That’s not the point, my soul.
- This is your protegee, [darling,] your dear Princess Drubetskaya, Anna Mikhailovna, whom I would not wish to have as a maid, this vile, disgusting woman.
- Ne perdons point de temps. [Let's not waste time.]
- Ax, don't say! Last winter she rubbed herself in here and said such nasty things, such nasty things to the Count on all of us, especially Sophie — I cannot repeat — that the Count became ill and did not want to see us for two weeks. At this time, I know that he wrote this disgusting, disgusting paper; but I thought this paper meant nothing.
- Nous u voila, [This is the point.] Why didn't you tell me anything before?
“In the mosaic briefcase he keeps under his pillow. Now I know, - said the princess without answering. “Yes, if there is a sin behind me, a great sin, then it’s hatred of this scum,” the princess almost shouted, completely changed. - And why is she rubbing herself in here? But I'll tell her everything, everything. The time will come!

While such conversations were taking place in the reception room and in the princess's rooms, the carriage with Pierre (for whom it was sent) and with Anna Mikhailovna (who found it necessary to go with him) drove into the courtyard of Count Bezukhoi. When the wheels of the carriage softly sounded on the straw laid under the windows, Anna Mikhailovna, turning to her companion with comforting words, made sure that he was sleeping in the corner of the carriage, and woke him up. Waking up, Pierre followed Anna Mikhailovna out of the carriage and then only thought of the meeting with his dying father that awaited him. He noticed that they had arrived not at the front door, but at the back entrance. While he was stepping off the step, two men in bourgeois clothes hurriedly ran away from the entrance to the shadow of the wall. Pausing, Pierre saw in the shadow of the house on both sides several more people of the same kind. But neither Anna Mikhailovna, nor the footman, nor the coachman, who could not help seeing these people, paid attention to them. Therefore, this is so necessary, Pierre decided with himself, and followed Anna Mikhailovna. Anna Mikhailovna hurried up the dimly lit narrow stone staircase, beckoning Pierre who was behind her, who, although he did not understand why he had to go to the count at all, and even less why he had to go up the back staircase, but judging by Anna Mikhailovna's confidence and haste, he decided to himself that it was necessary. Halfway down the stairs, they were nearly knocked off their feet by some people with buckets, who, with their boots knocking, ran to meet them. These people pressed against the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna pass, and did not show the slightest surprise at the sight of them.
- Are half princesses here? - Anna Mikhailovna asked one of them ...
“Here,” the footman answered in a bold, loud voice, as if now everything was possible, “the door is to the left, mother.
“Maybe the count didn’t call me,” said Pierre as he walked out onto the platform, “I would have gone to my place.
Anna Mikhailovna stopped to catch up with Pierre.
- Ah, mon ami! - she said with the same gesture as with her son in the morning, touching his hand: - croyez, que je souffre autant, que vous, mais soyez homme. [Believe me, I suffer as much as you do, but be a man.]
- Right, I'll go? - asked Pierre, affectionately looking through his glasses at Anna Mikhailovna.
- Ah, mon ami, oubliez les torts qu "on a pu avoir envers vous, pensez que c" est votre pere ... peut etre al "agonie. - She sighed. - Je vous ai tout de suite aime comme mon fils. Fiez vous a moi, Pierre. Je n "oublirai pas vos interets. [Forget, my friend, what was wrong against you. Remember that this is your father ... Maybe in agony. I immediately fell in love with you as a son. Trust me, Pierre. I will not forget your interests.]