No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
Parallel translations
- WEB There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- KJV There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
- ESV “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.
- NKJV “There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel.
- NASB “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute.
- NLT “No Israelite, whether man or woman, may become a temple prostitute.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
No Israelite, male or female, is to become a cult prostitute. Sexual immorality tied to pagan worship is utterly forbidden.
Overview
This prohibits the ritual prostitution common in Canaanite fertility religion, which combined idolatry with sexual sin. God's people were to be wholly distinct from such defiling practices. The command upholds both sexual purity and exclusive worship of the LORD, reflecting His holiness and His claim on every part of His people's lives and bodies (1 Cor 6:18-20).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 2 Kgs 23:7He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.
- 1 Kgs 14:24There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
- Lev 19:29You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity.
- 1 Kgs 22:46He banished from the land the male shrine prostitutes who remained from the days of his father Asa.
- Deut 22:21she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.
- 1 Kgs 15:12He banished the male shrine prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
- 1 Tim 1:10for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave traders and liars and perjurers, and for anyone else who is averse to sound teaching
- Rom 1:26–28For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
- 1 Cor 6:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
- Prov 2:16It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words
- Judg 19:22While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!”
- Gen 19:4–5Before they had gone to bed, all the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.
- Deut 22:29then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 23:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.