Pressed on every side
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ⲛⲁⲓ̈ ϭⲉ ⲛ̅ⲧⲉⲣⲟⲩϣⲱⲡⲉ ⲁⲥⲣ̅ϭⲱⲃ ⲛ̅ϭⲓⲧⲥⲟⲫⲓⲁ ⲉⲙⲁϣⲟ ⲉⲙⲁϣⲟ· ⲁⲩⲱ ⲟⲛ ⲁⲥϩⲓⲧⲟⲟⲧⲥ̅ ⲛ̅ϭⲓϯϭⲟⲙ ⲛ̅ⲟⲩⲟⲉⲓⲛ ⲛ̅ϩⲟ ⲙ̅ⲙⲟⲩⲓ̈ ⲉⲧⲙ̅ⲙⲁⲩ ⲉⲧⲣⲉⲥϥⲓ ⲛ̅ⲛ̅ϭⲟⲙ ⲧⲏⲣⲟⲩ ⲛ̅ⲟⲩⲟⲉⲓⲛ ϩⲛ̅ⲧⲥⲟⲫⲓⲁ· ⲁⲩⲱ ⲛ̅ϭⲟⲙ ⲧⲏⲣⲟⲩ ⲛ̅ϩⲩⲗⲓⲕⲟⲛ ⲛ̅ⲧⲉⲡⲁⲩⲑⲁⲇⲏⲥ ⲁⲩⲕⲱⲧⲉ ⲉⲧⲥⲟⲫⲓⲁ ϩⲓⲟⲩⲥⲟⲡ ⲁⲩϩⲱϫ ⲙ̅ⲙⲟⲥ·
When these things had befallen, Sophia grew weak, very greatly. And moreover that lion-faced light-power set to work taking away all the light-powers in Sophia, and all the material powers of the Self-willed one surrounded Sophia at once and pressed her hard.
The chapter’s last image: Sophia, drained, grows very greatly weak. The lion-faced light-power sets to work taking every remaining light-power out of her, and all the material powers of the Self-willed one surround her at once and press her hard. From inside this siege her first repentance will rise (ch. 32).
The chapter ends not with a blow but with a process. The lion-faced power "set to work" — <em>as-hi-toot-s</em>, she put her hand to it, the ordinary Coptic idiom for starting a job — extracting what light remains in Sophia. The devouring of the last passage was an ambush; this is an occupation. And around the worksite, the second verb the reader already knows: <em>kōte</em>, they surrounded her — the same verb that circled the disciples’ false cosmology in chapter 1 and the light around Jesus in chapter 2. In this book what surrounds you is your world; Sophia’s world is now a ring of her enemy’s matter, tightening — <em>hōj</em>, pressing her, the siege-word — "at once", from every side together.
Hold the picture, because the book has built it as a stage: a being of light, nearly emptied, held in a press of matter at the bottom of the chaos, with her stolen brightness shining inside the things that hold her. This is rock bottom of the whole four-book drama — and it is exactly here, in the next chapter, that Sophia does the thing the book exists to teach: she turns and repents, the first of thirteen <em>metanoiai</em>, prayed straight up out of the siege in the psalter’s own words. The fall took three chapters. The climb back will take most of the book — and the disciples, watching, will learn that the climb is what the psalms were about all along.
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