Deuteronomy 23:17

Footnotes

1. 25 The Hebrew term translated “sacred prostitute” here (קְדֵשָׁה [qédeshah], from קַדֵשׁ [qadesh, “holy”]; cf. “shrine prostitute”; “cult prostitute”; , , “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).
2. 26 Heb “daughters.”
3. 27 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. , , , ).
4. 28 Heb “sons.”