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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 23

1 A man with crushed or severed genitals may not enter the assembly of the Lord. 2 A person of illegitimate birth may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so.⁠ 3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord;⁠ to the tenth generation none of their descendants shall ever do so,⁠ 4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt,⁠ and furthermore, they hired Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you. 5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves you. 6 You must not seek peace and prosperity for them through all the ages to come. 7 You must not hate an Edomite, for he is your relative; you must not hate an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner in his land. 8 Children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. 9 When you go out as an army against your enemies, guard yourselves against anything impure. 10 If there is someone among you who is impure because of some nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp; he may not reenter it immediately. 11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water, and then at sunset he may reenter the camp. 12 You are to have a place outside the camp to serve as a latrine. 13 You must have a spade among your other equipment, and when you relieve yourself outside you must dig a hole with the spade and then turn and cover your excrement. 14 For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat your enemies for you.⁠ Therefore your camp should be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you. 15 You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you.⁠ 16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages he prefers; you must not oppress him. 17 There must never be a sacred prostitute among the young women of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute among the young men of Israel.⁠ 18 You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute or the wage of a dog30, a male prostitute, into the temple of the Lord your God⁠ in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God.⁠ 19 You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, whether on money, food, or anything else that has been loaned with interest.⁠ 20 You may lend with interest to a foreigner, but not to your fellow Israelite; if you keep this command the Lord your God will bless you in all you undertake in the land you are about to enter to possess. 21 When you make a vow to the Lord your God you must not delay in fulfilling it, for otherwise he will surely hold you accountable as a sinner.⁠ 22 If you refrain from making a vow, it will not be sinful. 23 Whatever you vow, you must be careful to do what you have promised, such as what you have vowed to the Lord your God as a freewill offering.⁠ 24 When you enter the vineyard of your neighbor you may eat as many grapes as you please, but you must not take away any in a container. 25 When you go into the ripe grain fields of your neighbor you may pluck off the kernels with your hand, but you must not use a sickle on your neighbor’s ripe grain.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 23:18 and Isaiah 23:17

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy forbids bringing the income of prostitutes into the sanctuary, calling it unacceptable. Isaiah uses similar language when describing Tyre, portraying its profits as linked to prostitution and how it will be redirected for a different use.

Passages

Deuteronomy 23:18

Hebrew Bible
16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages he prefers; you must not oppress him. 17 There must never be a sacred prostitute among the young women of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute among the young men of Israel. 18 You must never bring the pay of a female prostitute or the wage of a dog30, a male prostitute, into the temple of the Lord your God in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to the Lord your God. 19 You must not charge interest on a loan to your fellow Israelite, whether on money, food, or anything else that has been loaned with interest. 20 You may lend with interest to a foreigner, but not to your fellow Israelite; if you keep this command the Lord your God will bless you in all you undertake in the land you are about to enter to possess.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Isaiah 23:17

Hebrew Bible
15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years, the typical life span of a king. At the end of 70 years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: 16 “Take the harp, go through the city, forgotten prostitute! Play it well, play lots of songs, so you’ll be noticed.” 17 At the end of 70 years the Lord will revive Tyre. She will start making money again by selling her services to all the earth’s kingdoms. 18 Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

References

"... Micah 1:7 can speak of Samaria’s idols that have been gathered “from the hire of a harlot” (compare also Isaiah 23:17–18). The concept of prostitution as a means to pay vows was so well known that the Greek translators of Proverbs 19:13 had recourse to it in elucidating a passage that otherwise remained obscure to them. Whereas the Hebrew text speaks of a wife’s quarreling, which is likened to “a continual dripping of rain,” the LXX talks about the unholy “votive gifts from the hire of a hetaera.” From a text-critical point of view the Masoretic Text is to be preferred, but the Greek rendering is revealing of the notoriety of the custom that interests us here ... Besides the attestations of incidental sexual promiscuity on the occasion of festivals, however, the Hebrew Bible also mentions a specific category of people who are generally considered to have been the “professionals” of “sacred” prostitution in ancient Israel. These are the qĕdēšîm, a term frequently rendered as “cult prostitutes.” Although the traditional understanding of this term has been challenged on the basis of the evidence concerning the Ugaritic qdšm, the parallelism between qĕdēšâ and zônâ in Genesis 38 and Deuteronomy 23:18–19 favors the idea that the qĕdēšîm engaged primarily in sexual activities. The Ugaritic qdšm seem to have consisted of non-priestly temple personnel dedicated to a deity. They were free to marry and have children and could be released from their service by a royal decree. The situation of the Israelite qĕdēšîm may, to some extent, have been similar ..."
Karel Van der Toorn, God in Context: Selected Essays on Society and Religion in the Early Middle East (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018), 93–95.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 23:18 and Isaiah 23:17

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