2 Chronicles 21:11

21:11 He also built high places on the hills of Judah; he encouraged the residents of Jerusalem to be unfaithful to the Lord ¹  and led Judah away from the Lord. ² 

Exodus 34:15

34:15 Be careful ³  not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when ⁴  they prostitute themselves ⁵  to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, ⁶  you will eat from his sacrifice;

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ⁷  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ⁸  are going. They ⁹  will reject ¹⁰  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 31:2

31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, ¹²  and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’

Deuteronomy 9:22

9:22 Moreover, you continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, ¹³  Massah, ¹⁴  and Kibroth-Hattaavah. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 3:8-9

3:8 She also saw ¹⁶  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ¹⁷  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ¹⁸  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ¹⁹  3:9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ²⁰  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ²¹ 

¹ tn Heb “and he caused the residents of Jerusalem to commit adultery.” In this context spiritual unfaithfulness to the Lord is in view rather than physical adultery.

² tn Heb “and drove Judah away.”

³ tn The sentence begins simply “lest you make a covenant”; it is undoubtedly a continuation of the imperative introduced earlier, and so that is supplied here.

⁴ tn The verb is a perfect with a vav consecutive. In the literal form of the sentence, this clause tells what might happen if the people made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land: “Take heed…lest you make a covenant…and then they prostitute themselves…and sacrifice…and invite…and you eat.” The sequence lays out an entire scenario.

⁵ tn The verb זָנָה (zanah) means “to play the prostitute; to commit whoredom; to be a harlot” or something similar. It is used here and elsewhere in the Bible for departing from pure religion and engaging in pagan religion. The use of the word in this figurative sense is fitting, because the relationship between God and his people is pictured as a marriage, and to be unfaithful to it was a sin. This is also why God is described as a “jealous” or “impassioned” God. The figure may not be merely a metaphorical use, but perhaps a metonymy, since there actually was sexual immorality at the Canaanite altars and poles.

⁶ tn There is no subject for the verb. It could be rendered “and one invites you,” or it could be made a passive.

⁷ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

⁸ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

¹⁰ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

¹¹ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

¹² tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”

¹³ sn Taberah. By popular etymology this derives from the Hebrew verb בָעַר (ba’ar, “to burn”), thus, here, “burning.” The reference is to the Lord’s fiery wrath against Israel because of their constant complaints against him (Num 11:1-3).

¹⁴ sn Massah. See note on this term in Deut 6:16.

¹⁵ sn Kibroth-Hattaavah. This place name means in Hebrew “burial places of appetite,” that is, graves that resulted from overindulgence. The reference is to the Israelites stuffing themselves with the quail God had provided and doing so with thanklessness (Num 11:31-35).

¹⁶ tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

¹⁷ tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

¹⁸ tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

¹⁹ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

²⁰ tc The translation reads the form as a causative (Hiphil, תַּהֲנֵף, tahanef) with some of the versions in place of the simple stative (Qal, תֶּחֱנַף, tekhenaf) in the MT.

²¹ tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”