Even more fully than in the previous verse, 13,6 , the possibilities of are wittily exploited. An ordinary looter, seeking wealth, digs up pearls; an investigator, seeking knowledge, uncovers mysteries. The depths of the lover's heart used to contain 'pearls of mystery'. And now they've all been ravaged and looted. But what exactly was the nature of this looting? It was the digging/investigation 'of' the grief 'of' separation []. Even if we take the second straightforwardly, the first one can still go at least two ways. Was it digging an act done 'by' the grief of separation, or an investigation 'of' the grief of separation? In the first (active) reading, it was the grief itself that did the digging, boring down steadily into the breast and destroying everything it touched. In the second (passive, metaphorical) reading, it was the 'investigation' of grief, the analytical 'digging', that did the damage. Doctors tried to diagnose the grief, friends tried to explore it, the lover himself tried to plumb its depths. All this obsessive inquiry, all this analytical dissection, ended up wrecking the pearls of mystery in the lover's breast. For a similarly multivalent case, see 1,2 , where the digging, the , can also be taken either actively or passively. For a less complex use of , see 15,8 . Then in 178,5 we find the wonderfully vivid . graphics/fireheart.jpg