Leviticus 19:29

19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, ¹  so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. ² 

Leviticus 20:5

20:5 I myself will set my face against that man and his clan. I will cut off from the midst of their people both him and all who follow after him in spiritual prostitution, ³  to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. ⁴ 

Leviticus 21:9

21:9 If a daughter of a priest profanes herself by engaging in prostitution, she is profaning her father. She must be burned to death. ⁵ 

Leviticus 17:7

17:7 So they must no longer offer ⁶  their sacrifices to the goat demons, ⁷  acting like prostitutes by going after them. ⁸  This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations. ⁹ 

Leviticus 20:6

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums ¹⁰ 

20:6 “‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits ¹¹  to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face ¹²  against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.

Leviticus 21:7

21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, ¹³  nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, ¹⁴  for the priest ¹⁵  is holy to his God. ¹⁶ 

Leviticus 21:14

21:14 He must not marry ¹⁷  a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people ¹⁸  as a wife.

¹ tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).

² tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

³ tn The adjective “spiritual” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that this is not a reference to literal prostitution, but figuratively compares idolatry to prostitution.

⁴ tn Heb “to commit harlotry after Molech.” The translation employs “worshiping” here for clarity (cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

⁵ tn See the note on “burned to death” in 20:14.

⁷ tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”

⁸ tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.

⁹ tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “for your generations.”

⁹ sn For structure and coherence in Lev 20:6-27 see the note on v. 27 below.

¹⁰ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirits” in Lev 19:31 above.

¹¹ tn Heb “I will give my faces.”

¹¹ tn Heb “A wife harlot and profaned they shall not take.” The structure of the verse (e.g., “wife” at the beginning of the two main clauses) suggests that “harlot and profaned” constitutes a hendiadys, meaning “a wife defiled by harlotry” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 143, as opposed to that in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348; cf. v. 14 below). Cf. NASB “a woman who is profaned by harlotry.”

¹² sn For a helpful discussion of divorce in general and as it relates to this passage see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 143-44.

¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn The pronoun “he” in this clause refers to the priest, not the former husband of the divorced woman.

¹³ tn Heb “take.” In context this means “take as wife,” i.e., “marry.”

¹⁴ tc The MT has literally, “from his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.