Deuteronomy 23:17 · Bible study
Deuteronomy 23:17 Commentary: Kedeshah and Kadesh
Hebrew · 9 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Does Deuteronomy 23:17 forbid sacred temple prostitution or all forms of prostitution and male homosexuality?
Research Summary
- Meaning: Israel must not have cultic prostitutes (female or male) in its midst because they are an abomination to God.
- Key words: Kedeshah (female ‘holy one’) and kadesh (male ‘holy one’), terms borrowed from Canaanite religion and used by antiphrasis to denounce impurity.
- Main debate: Does the prohibition target only temple prostitution or all forms of prostitution and male homosexuality? Commentators differ; context favours the cultic reading.
- Theological theme: Holiness as separation from idolatrous sexual practices; the incompatibility of worshiping the true God and engaging in pagan rites.
- Best use: Teaching on the distinctiveness of God’s people, the dangers of syncretism, and the call to bodily purity.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
WEB World English Bible 2000
There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
KJV King James Version 1769
There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
`There is not a whore among the daughters of Israel, nor is there a whoremonger among the sons of Israel;
Darby Darby Bible 1890
There shall be no prostitute amongst the daughters of Israel, nor any Sodomite amongst the sons of Israel.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
There shall be no whore among the daughters of Israel, nor whoremonger among the sons of Israel.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
No habrá ramera de las hijas de Israel, ni habrá sodomítico de los hijos de Israel.
Não haverá prostituta das filhas de Israel, nem haverá prostituto ritual dos filhos de Israel.
Il n’ y aura aucune prostituée parmi les filles d’Israël, et il n’ y aura aucun prostitué parmi les fils d’Israël.
[23:18] Es soll keine Hure sein unter den Töchtern Israels und kein Hurer unter den Söhnen Israels.
Er zal geen hoer zijn onder de dochteren van Israel; en er zal geen schandjongen zijn onder de zonen van Israel.
Non vi sarà alcuna meretrice tra le figliuole d’Israele, né vi sarà alcun uomo che si prostituisca tra i figliuoli d’Israele.
Nie będzie nierządnica z córek Izraelskich, ani będzie nierządnik z synów Izraelskich.
Не должно быть блудницы из дочерей Израилевых и не должно быть блудника из сынов Израилевых.
「以色列 的女子 中不可 有 妓女；以色列 的男子 中不可 有 孌童。
No daughter of Israel is to let herself be used as a loose woman for a strange god, and no son of Israel is to give himself to a man.
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
The Hebrew words for 'prostitute' (kedeshah, feminine) and 'sodomite' (kadesh, masculine) literally mean 'holy one.' Across traditions, commentators agree that these terms in Deuteronomy 23:17 refer specifically to persons consecrated to pagan fertility cults, especially the worship of Astarte or Ashtoreth. Barnes notes that prostitution 'was a common part of religious observances among idolatrous nations.' Keil and Delitzsch state plainly that the verse prohibits a man or woman from giving themselves up to prostitution 'as an act of religious worship.' Matthew Henry and Wesley concur, calling it a ban on common prostitutes 'such as were tolerated and encouraged by the Gentiles, and used even in their religious worship.'
A debated question is whether the verse condemns only cultic prostitution or also ordinary prostitution and male homosexual acts. Gill and Calvin recognize the ambiguity; Gill records Jewish interpreters who understand kadesh as one 'prepared to lie with a male.' The immediate context, the following verse (v.18) forbids bringing the 'hire of a prostitute' or 'price of a dog' into God's house, reinforces the cultic setting. Still, most commentators see the verse as at least including broader sexual immorality by implication, since all prostitution 'profanes' the land (Leviticus 19:29).
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Cultic prostitution only: The Hebrew terms kedeshah/kadesh are used elsewhere for temple functionaries (1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; Hosea 4:14); the surrounding verses (v.18) link to temple vows.
- Includes common prostitution and male homosexuality: The immediate context does not limit the meaning; Calvin notes the word ‘kadesh’ is used in Job 36:14 for the immoral; later translations and church tradition have read it broadly.
- Both cultic and common are included (biblical-theological reading): Leviticus 19:29 forbids profaning a daughter by making her a prostitute without cultic language; the same Hebrew verb zanah is used for both.
What is clear: The verse prohibits Israelites from being prostitutes in connection with pagan worship, and it forbids using their earnings for offerings to God.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of kedeshah/kadesh | The terms literally mean 'holy one' and refer to persons involved in Canaanite fertility cults. | Some (Keil, Barnes) see them as exclusively cultic functionaries; others (Calvin) allow a broader meaning that includes common fornicators. |
| Scope of prohibition | All traditions agree the verse forbids the practice of cultic prostitution among Israelites. | Is common prostitution and male homosexual conduct also condemned in this verse, or only the religious version? The immediate context (v.18) about 'the hire of a prostitute' entering God’s house suggests the economic link to idolatry is primary. |
| Translation of 'sodomite' | The KJV, ASV and Darby use 'sodomite'; modern translations (NIV, BSB) use 'male shrine prostitute' or 'male prostitute.' | Whether the Hebrew <em>kadesh</em> refers to homosexual acts generally or specifically to male cultic prostitutes. The parallel with <em>kedeshah</em> suggests a cultic function. |
| Connection to later reforms | First Kings 14:24; 15:12 show that 'sodomites' (kedeshim) existed in Judah and were purged by Asa. | Whether these were identical to the persons in Deuteronomy 23:17 or a broader category of male temple servants. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Deuteronomy 23:17 belongs to a section of laws concerned with maintaining the holiness of Israel's camp, physically, morally, and spiritually. The preceding verses deal with keeping the camp clean (vv.13, 14) and protecting fugitive slaves (vv.15, 16). Verse 17 then targets a practice that directly threatened Israel’s distinct identity: cultic prostitution.
In ancient Canaanite religion, fertility worship centered on deities like Baal and Astarte (Ashtoreth). Both female and male temple prostitutes served as part of the ritual, engaging in sexual acts believed to stimulate the gods to ensure agricultural fertility. The Hebrew terms kedeshah and kadesh derive from the root q-d-sh, meaning 'to be set apart' or 'holy.' By grim irony, these persons were called 'holy ones' while engaging in what the Lord called an 'abomination' (v.18). Similar practices existed across the ancient Near East, Herodotus describes sacred prostitution at the temple of Mylitta in Babylon, and Strabo records thousands of 'sacred harlots' at the temple of Venus in Corinth.
The law did not merely regulate private morality; it cut at the root of idolatry. Israelites were forbidden from even bringing the wages of such prostitution into the sanctuary (v.18), a prohibition that treated the money as defiled. First Kings 14:24 and 15:12 later show that 'sodomites' (kedeshim) had infiltrated Judah, and reformer kings like Asa had to root them out. This verse, then, served as a boundary marker: what the surrounding nations considered an act of worship, God's people were to regard as an impurity that could cause God to 'turn away' from them (v.14).
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Deuteronomy 23:17. The Masoretic Text is consistent across manuscripts, and the early versions (Septuagint, Vulgate, Targum) agree in rendering the terms as referring to cultic prostitutes. The main interpretive differences arise from translation choices rather than textual uncertainty.
Reception History
Early Jewish interpreters (e.g., the Targum) understood the verse as a ban on both male and female cultic prostitution. The early church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, applied the verse more broadly to condemn all forms of prostitution and homosexual acts, often citing it alongside Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1. In the medieval period, Jewish exegetes like Rashi and Ibn Ezra noted the cultic context while still seeing a general moral prohibition. The Protestant Reformers, Calvin, Luther, and the Geneva Bible, emphasized the connection to idolatry, but also used the verse to argue against any form of sexual immorality sanctioned by religion. Modern commentators, especially Keil and Delitzsch and more recent evangelical scholars, have returned to the cultic reading, arguing that the specific historical context of Canaanite religion is essential to understanding the verse. The term 'sodomite' in older English translations has caused significant confusion, leading many contemporary readers to assume the verse addresses all male homosexuality, while most scholars today see the cultic setting as primary.
Preaching This Verse
Three-Point Outline
- What Israel must not be: The community of God’s people is called to be holy, not to copy the cultic prostitution of the nations (vv.17, 18).
- Why it matters: Sexual sin and idolatry are closely linked; what we do with our bodies reflects what we believe about God.
- How to respond: Purge not only actions but also the religious justifications that make sin seem acceptable.
Five-Point Outline
- The terms themselves signal the problem: The Hebrew roots mean 'set apart', the Canaanites 'set apart' persons for sexual sin; God’s people are set apart for holiness.
- Cultic vs. common: The law focuses on religious prostitution, but it reveals God’s heart about all sexual immorality.
- Connected to the camp holiness: Verse 14 says the Lord walks in the camp; nothing unclean can stay.
- The wages of sin cannot be dedicated to God: Verse 18 shows that tainted money cannot be offered to the Lord.
- A call to distinctiveness: Israel was to be different from the nations in its worship, and in its sexuality.
Illustration Hooks
- Religious veneer: Imagine someone saying a 'prayer' before committing a wrongdoing, using religion to excuse sin.
- Fundraising from harm: A charity accepting money from a destructive industry and calling it a gift.
- Double identity: The 'holy one' who lived unholy, like a pastor secretly living a double life.
Questions Your Congregation Is Asking
- Does this verse condemn all prostitution, or only the religious kind?
- Is 'sodomite' here the same as our modern category of homosexuality?
- How should we apply this text today when cultic prostitution is rare?
Leading a Discussion
This verse appears in a block of laws about holiness in the camp. Read Deuteronomy 23:9, 18, noting how each law relates to purity. Verse 17 bans specific roles, the kedeshah and the kadesh, that were linked to pagan worship. Your group’s task is to uncover what this meant for ancient Israel and what it means for Christians today.
Discussion Questions
- What do the Hebrew terms kedeshah and kadesh literally mean, and why is that ironic?
- Based on the surrounding verses (vv.13, 14, 18), why was this law given at this point in Deuteronomy?
- How did cultic prostitution differ from ordinary prostitution in the ancient world? Why would God specifically target the cultic kind?
- Does this verse address only temple prostitution, or does it also condemn all forms of prostitution and male homosexual acts? What evidence supports each view?
- The NIV, NLT and BSB translate the second half as 'male shrine prostitute' rather than 'sodomite.' How might that translation affect interpretation?
- In what ways might Christian communities be tempted to 'baptize' sinful practices by giving them a religious label?
- How does the principle behind this law, 'the Lord walks in your camp', apply to your personal life and your church’s practices today?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Genesis 19:4 | But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. |
| Genesis 19:5 | They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.” |
| Leviticus 19:29 | “‘Don’t profane your daughter, to make her a prostitute; lest the land fall to prostitution, and the land become full of wickedness. |
| Deuteronomy 22:21 | then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you. |
| Deuteronomy 22:29 | then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. |
| Judges 19:22 | As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain wicked fellows, surrounded the house, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we can have sex with him!” |
| I Kings 14:24 | There were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel. |
| I Kings 15:12 | He put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
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What the Commentators Say
8 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke offers no new comment on this verse. His only contribution is a cross-reference
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes points out that prostitution was a routine element in the religious rituals of pagan nations, particularly in the worship of the goddess Ashtoreth or Astarte. He draws this connection from other biblical and apocryphal passages that describe such practices.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin notes that the Hebrew word for a prostitute, kedeshah, literally means sanctified; he sees this as a deliberate opposite, calling a polluted woman holy. He argues the masculine form kadesh similarly covers all sexual impurity among men, whether ordinary fornication or sodomy. For Calvin, the text condemns every form of unchastity under one harsh verbal irony.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note observes that the law forbids both female and male prostitution among God's people. The prohibition covers not only the act itself but also the public presence of such persons, emphasizing that Israel must maintain moral purity without exception for either gender.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill notes that the Hebrew words for these offenders literally mean "holy ones" but are used ironically for the unholy. He argues they refer not to common prostitutes but specifically to those consecrated to pagan idols, which made the practice especially abominable for Israel.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch identifies the "dog" not as a real animal but as a vivid figure for the male temple prostitute, whose wages are as abhorrent as those of his female counterpart. Both, they insist, are an abomination to the Lord and must never be brought into His house under any vow.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
For Matthew Henry, the command to shelter an escaped servant turns the land of Israel into a sanctuary for the oppressed. The law protects a fugitive from a harsh master, granting him freedom to settle where he chooses. Israel's borders become a place of refuge for the abused, not a place to return them to bondage.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley notes that God's command against common prostitutes was not because such practices were allowed among Gentiles, but because they were especially abominable in His own people. The prohibition carried unique force for Israel, making the sin far more odious in them than in strangers.