Leviticus 17:7

17:7 So they must no longer offer ¹  their sacrifices to the goat demons, ²  acting like prostitutes by going after them. ³  This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations. ⁴ 

Leviticus 20:5-6

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, ⁵  to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. ⁶ 

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums ⁷ 

20:6 “‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits ⁸  to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face ⁹  against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.

Numbers 15:39

15:39 You must have this tassel so that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and obey them and so that you do not follow ¹⁰  after your own heart and your own eyes that lead you to unfaithfulness. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ¹²  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ¹³  are going. They ¹⁴  will reject ¹⁵  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ¹⁶ 

Jude 1:17

Exhortation to the Faithful

1:17 But you, dear friends – recall the predictions ¹⁷  foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 73:27

73:27 Yes, ¹⁹  look! Those far from you ²⁰  die;

you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 3:9

3:9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ²²  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ²³ 

Ezra 6:9

6:9 Whatever is needed – whether oxen or rams or lambs or burnt offerings for the God of heaven or wheat or salt or wine or oil, as required by ²⁴  the priests who are in Jerusalem – must be given to them daily without any neglect,

Hosea 4:12

4:12 They consult their wooden idols,

and their diviner’s staff answers with an oracle.

The wind of prostitution blows them astray;

they commit spiritual adultery ²⁵  against their God.

Hosea 9:1

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel

9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly ²⁶  like the nations,

for you are unfaithful ²⁷  to your God.

You love to receive a prostitute's wages ²⁸ 

on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

Revelation 17:1-5

The Great Prostitute and the Beast

17:1 Then ²⁹  one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me. ³⁰  “Come,” he said, “I will show you the condemnation and punishment ³¹  of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ³²  17:3 So ³³  he carried me away in the Spirit ³⁴  to a wilderness, ³⁵  and there ³⁶  I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 17:4 Now ³⁷  the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet clothing, ³⁸  and adorned with gold, ³⁹  precious stones, and pearls. She held ⁴⁰  in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from her sexual immorality. ⁴¹  17:5 On ⁴²  her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ⁴³  “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”

[17:7]  ¹ tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”

[17:7]  ² tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.

[17:7]  ³ tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”

[17:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[20:5]  ⁵ 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.

[20:5]  ⁶ 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.

[20:6]  ⁷ sn For structure and coherence in Lev 20:6-27 see the note on v. 27 below.

[20:6]  ⁸ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirits” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will give my faces.”

[15:39]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “seek out, look into.”

[15:39]  ¹¹ tn This last clause is a relative clause explaining the influence of the human heart and physical sight. It literally says, “which you go whoring after them.” The verb for “whoring” may be interpreted to mean “act unfaithfully.” So, the idea is these influences lead to unfaithful activity: “after which you act unfaithfully.”

[31:16]  ¹² tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ¹³ 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.

[31:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[1:17]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “words.” In conjunction with προεῖπον (proeipon), however, the meaning of the construction is that the apostles uttered prophecies.

[1:17]  ¹⁸ sn This verse parallels 2 Pet 3:2 both conceptually and in much of the verbiage. There is one important difference, however: In 2 Pet 3:2 the prophets and apostles speak; here, just the apostles speak. This makes good sense if Jude is using 2 Peter as his main source and is urging his readers to go back to the authoritative writings, both OT and now especially NT.

[73:27]  ¹⁹ tn Or “for.”

[73:27]  ²⁰ sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.

[73:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”

[3:9]  ²² 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.

[3:9]  ²³ tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”

[6:9]  ²⁴ tn Aram “according to the word of.”

[4:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “adultery.” The adjective “spiritual” is supplied in the translation to clarify that apostasy is meant here.

[9:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “do not rejoice unto jubilation”; KJV “Rejoice not…for joy”; NASB “Do not rejoice…with exultation.”

[9:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “you have committed adultery”; NRSV “you have played the whore.”

[9:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “you love the wages of the prostitute” (NIV similar); NAB “loving a harlot’s hire.”

[17:1]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[17:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “with me.” The translation “with me” implies that John was engaged in a dialogue with the one speaking to him (e.g., Jesus or an angel) when in reality it was a one-sided conversation, with John doing all the listening. For this reason, μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ (met’ emou, “with me”) was translated as “to me.”

[17:1]  ³¹ tn Here one Greek term, κρίμα (krima), has been translated by the two English terms “condemnation” and “punishment.” See BDAG 567 s.v. 4.b, “mostly in an unfavorable sense, of the condemnatory verdict and sometimes the subsequent punishment itself 2 Pt 2:3; Jd 4…τὸ κ. τῆς πόρνης the condemnation and punishment of the prostitute Rv 17:1.”

[17:2]  ³² tn This is the same word translated “sexual immorality” earlier in the verse, but here the qualifier “sexual” has not been repeated for stylistic reasons.

[17:3]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s invitation to witness the fate of the prostitute.

[17:3]  ³⁴ tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

[17:3]  ³⁵ tn Or “desert.”

[17:3]  ³⁶ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

[17:4]  ³⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the detailed description of the woman, which is somewhat parenthetical in nature.

[17:4]  ³⁸ tn The word “clothing” is supplied to clarify that the words “purple” and “scarlet” refer to cloth or garments rather than colors.

[17:4]  ³⁹ tn Grk “gilded with gold” (an instance of semantic reinforcement, see L&N 49.29).

[17:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “pearls, having in her hand.” Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[17:4]  ⁴¹ tc Several mss (including 1611 1854 2053 Ï^K pc) read “sexual immorality on/of the earth” (πορνείας τῆς γῆς, porneia" th" gh") instead of “her sexual immorality.” Other mss (א sy^h** [co]) read “her sexual immorality and the earth’s” (πορνείας αὐτῆς καὶ τῆς γῆς, porneia" aujth" kai th" gh"). The translation is a rendering of πορνείας αὐτῆς, found in {A 1006 2344 al}. It seems that the first reading “sexuality immorality on/of the earth” was a scribal mistake in which letters may have been confused (auths would have been read as thsghs), or was perhaps influenced by the presence of “of the world” (τῆς γῆς) at the end of v. 5. The original wording seems to be “her sexual immorality”; codex א has conflated the two readings.

[17:5]  ⁴² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[17:5]  ⁴³ tn Some translations consider the word μυστήριον (musthrion, “mystery”) a part of the name written (“Mystery Babylon the Great,” so KJV, NIV), but the gender of both ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) and μυστήριον are neuter, while the gender of “Babylon” is feminine. This strongly suggests that μυστήριον should be understood as an appositive to ὄνομα (“a name, i.e., a mystery”).