Deuteronomy 23:17

There must never be a sacred prostitute ¹  among the young women ²  of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute ³  among the young men ⁴  of Israel.

No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine-prostitute.

"None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute.

"No Israelite man or woman may ever become a temple prostitute.

No daughter of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute; and no son of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute.

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.

None of the daughters of Israel shall be a temple prostitute; none of the sons of Israel shall be a temple prostitute.

"There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a perverted one of the sons of Israel.

There must never be a sacred prostitute ¹  among the young women ²  of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute ³  among the young men ⁴  of Israel.

¹ 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).

² tn Heb “daughters.”

³ 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).

⁴ tn Heb “sons.”