Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 4:27 
Context4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you 1 among the nations where the Lord will drive you.
Deuteronomy 23:17
Context23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute 2 among the young women 3 of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute 4 among the young men 5 of Israel.
1 tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”
2 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).
3 tn Heb “daughters.”
4 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).
5 tn Heb “sons.”
