Commentarii in Sacram Scripturam (vol. 1): in Pentateuchum

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Fr. Cornelius à Lapide, S.J. (p. 81 = DjVu p. 91) somewhat answers (in ¶1 below) my question of why St. Jerome translated אִשָּׁ֔ה as virago (="a man-like woman", no?), whereas the LXX uses γυνή (woman). He also explains (in ¶2) the fascinating symbolical sense related to God and marriage. (I'm reminded of "Prophetic Figures of the Incarnate Word: Adam’s Tetra-Structural Nature & the Model of the Temple.")

[Gen. 2:23:] SHE SHALL BE CALLED WOMAN (virago), BECAUSE SHE WAS TAKEN OUT OF MAN (vir). ] The translator does not match the force of the Hebrew word: it is clear that Adam is speaking Hebrew here. For virago does not signify nature or sex, but the virile power and spirit in woman. However, the Hebrew word אשה isscha does signify the nature and sex of a woman, because it is derived from איה isch (i.e., "man") by adding the feminine he. Sometimes she will be called vira (as the old Latins spoke, according to Sextus Pompey), because she is taken from man; thus Symmachus's Greek εχ του ανδρος ["from the man"], St. Jerome testifies, Theodotion turns into hæc vocabitur assumptio, quia de viro sumpta est ["she shall be called assumption, because from man she was taken out"]; for isscha itself derives from the root נשה nasa , i.e., "taken up", "brought", "carried"; but the prior version is genuine.

HÆC VOCABITUR VIRAGO, QUONIAM DE VIRO SUMPTA EST. ] Non æquat Interpres vim Hebraeae vocis: adeoque ex hoc loco patet Adamum hebraice esse locutum. Nam virago non significat naturam aut sexum; sed virtutem et animum virilem in muliere. Hebræa vero vox אשה isscha , significat naturam et sexum mulieris, quia ab איה isch , id est a viro, derivatur, addito he feminino. q. d. Vocabitur vira (uti veteres Latini locuti sunt, teste Sexto Pompeio), quia de viro sumpta est: sic Symmachus Graece εχ του ανδρος, teste S. Hieronymo, Theodotion vertit, hæc vocabitur assumptio, quia de viro sumpta est ; ipse enim isscha , deducit arad. נשה nasa , id est assumpsit, tulit, portavit; sed prior aliorum versio est genuina.

[¶2 added in this answer:] Symbolically and elegantly, Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra notes that the contracted name of God, הי, iāh [or yāh] is contained in the word השא, ’iššāh. God is the founder of marriage, and as long as His name remains in marriage — and it remains as long as spouses fear God and mutually love each other — God will be present in and bless the marriage. But if they hate one another and forget God, then the spouses will cast away that name. Therefore, with the Hebrew letters yod [י] and he [ה] removed, of which the word הי is composed, all that remains of שיא, ’îš , and השא, ’iššāh , i.e. all that remains of the of the Hebrew words for “man” and “woman,” is שא שא, êš êš , i.e., “fire and fire,” the fire of quarrels and trouble in this life, but eternal fire in the next.

Symbolice et lepide, R. Abraham ben Ezra notat in voce אשה isscha , contineri nomen contractum Dei יה ia , qui est auctor conjugii; et quandiu hoc nomen in conjugio manet (manet autem quandiu conjuges Deum timent, et mutuo sese amant), tandiu nuptiis Deum adesse et benedicere. Si vero invicem oderint, et Dei obliviscantur, tum illud nomen conjuges abjicere; itaque sublato jod et he , ex quibus fit אשה, tantum remanere ex איה isch , et אשה isscha , id est ex viro et muliere, אש אש esch esch , id est ignem et ignem, scilicet ignem rixarum et molestiae in hac vita, in altera vero ignem æternum.

I like how Mario ended his post:

Do not worship life. Worship the Creator of life, even if it means losing your life in the process. Then you will know what it truly means to have life “more abundantly”!

Numbers 25 (which St. Peter Damian commentates in De cœlibatu sacerdotum) shows, as the Douay transl. notes,

By carnal fornication many are drawn to spiritual. For which twenty four thousand are slain. 10. Phinees his Zeal in stabbing to death two fornicators, is commended by God, and rewarded.

It seems there's a relationship between idolatry and fertility-worship. Fr. Cornelius gives at least six descriptions of Beelphegor, e.g., "deus desiderii, hoc est concupiscentiæ ", "imago viri nudi, qui habebat pellem mortui in ore "; "cultus Beelphagor consistebat in otio, comessationibus, vacatione et libertate ab omni disciplina , honestate, et pudicitia. Hinc sacerdotes habebant feminas scilicet meretrices ". What a disgusting god!

Deo vero conveniat vita.

pp. 96-7 (DjVu pp. 106-7): the meaning of "know" in Gen. 4:17 (& passim)