Discovery BoxLeviticus 19:29
Context19:29 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
Deuteronomy 23:17
Context23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute 3 among the young women 4 of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute 5 among the young men 6 of Israel.
Joshua 2:1
Context2:1 Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: 7 “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.” 8 They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there. 9
[19:29] 1 tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).
[19:29] 2 tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
[23:17] 3 tn The Hebrew term translated “sacred prostitute” here (קְדֵשָׁה [qÿdeshah], from קַדֵשׁ [qadesh, “holy”]; cf. NIV “shrine prostitute”; NASB “cult prostitute”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “temple prostitute”) refers to the pagan fertility cults that employed female and male prostitutes in various rituals designed to evoke agricultural and even human fecundity (cf. Gen 38:21-22; 1 Kgs 14:24; 15:12; 22:47; 2 Kgs 23:7; Hos 4:14). The Hebrew term for a regular, noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute is זוֹנָה (zonah).
[23:17] 5 tn The male cultic prostitute was called קָדֵשׁ (qadesh; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” earlier in this verse). The colloquial Hebrew term for a “secular” male prostitute (i.e., a sodomite) is the disparaging epithet כֶּלֶב (kelev, “dog”) which occurs in the following verse (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).
[2:1] 7 tn Heb “Joshua, son of Nun, sent from Shittim two men, spies, secretly, saying.”
[2:1] 8 tn Heb “go, see the land, and Jericho.”
[2:1] 9 tn Heb “they went and entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, and her name was Rahab, and they slept there.”
