Deuteronomy 23:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Deuteronomy 23:18
Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
hire
אֶתְנַ֨ן'et.Nan
H868
a gift (as the price of harlotry or idolatry) · noun, common masculine singular construct
whore
זוֹנָ֜הzo.Nah
H2181
to commit adultery (usually of the female · verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
price
וּמְחִ֣ירu.me.Chir
H4242
price · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
dog
כֶּ֗לֶבKe.lev
H3611
a dog · noun, common masculine singular absolute
house
בֵּ֛יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ'e.lo.Hei.kha
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
vow
נֶ֑דֶרNe.der
H5088
a promise (to God) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
both
שְׁנֵיהֶֽםshe.nei.Hem
H8147
two · noun, common both genders dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
abomination
תוֹעֲבַ֛תto.'a.Vat
H8441
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ'e.lo.Hei.kha
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Philippians 3:2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again…
Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Psalms 5:4-6 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.
Isaiah 61:8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting coven…
Ezekiel 16:33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for…
Deuteronomy 23:21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 23:15–end
Orders are here given about five several things which have no relation one to another: -
I. The land of Israel is here made a sanctuary, or city of refuge, for servants that were wronged and abused by their masters, and fled thither for shelter from the neighbouring countries, Deu 23:15, Deu 23:16. We cannot suppose that they were hereby obliged to give entertainment to all the unprincipled men that ran from service; Israel needed not (as Rome at first did) to be thus peopled. But, 1. They must not deliver up the trembling servant to his enraged master, till upon trial it appeared that the servant has wronged his master and was justly liable to punishment. Note, It is an honourable thing to…
Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which has escaped from his master unto thee--evidently a servant of the Canaanites or some of the neighboring people, who was driven by tyrannical oppression, or induced, with a view of embracing the true religion, to take refuge in Israel.
John Gill on Deuteronomy 23:18
Thou shall not bring the hire of a whore,.... Which was given to her as a reward for the use of her body:
or the price of a dog; not of the firstborn of a dog, the price for the redemption of it, as some; nor for the loan of a hunting dog, or a shepherd's dog for breed, as Josephus (z) interprets this law. Abarbinel understands it figuratively of a sodomite, comparable to a dog, for his uncleanness and impudence; see Revelation 22:15; and the price of such an one the gain he got by the prostitution of his body to unnatural lusts; and so as the hire of a whore answers to one in Deuteronomy 23:17, the price of a dog to a sodomite here; and in this he is followed by some, nor is it a sense to…
Deuteronomy 23:18
18. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
18. Non offeres mercedem meretricis, nec pretium canis in domum Jehovae Dei tui, pro quocunque voto: quia abominatio Jehovae Dei tui utrumque est.
18. Thou shalt not bring the hire. This command has an affinity to the foregoing, for God, rejecting whatever is acquired by illicit and filthy traffic, teaches us that the utmost chastity is to be observed in sacred things; nor does He only refuse the hire of a whore, but also the price of a dog, lest the sanctity of the altar should be polluted by any…
The Church Fathers
You shall not offer a harlot's reward or a change of dog in the house of the Lord your God in relation to any vow, because both are abominable to the Lord your God. This must be understood in the sense that it is an abomination to the Lord your God not one of these things, but both. In relation to the dog, it is forbidden to make the change of the firstborn, which he orders to be made with the other impure animals, such as horses and donkeys and other similar ones, which serve as a help to man, and in Latin receive the name of iumenta ( jumentos), because it is derived from iuvando (help). In relation to the dog, he has not allowed it. It is necessary to investigate if it has not allowed it with respect to the pig and why, and if it has not been allowed regarding these animals why in this passage only the dog has been excepted. The reason for mentioning the reward of the prostitute seems to be because before it was forbidden that there were prostitutes among the children of Israel and it was forbidden for anyone of them to approach one of them (Cf Dt 23,17). And so that no one would think that this sin could be expiated by offering in the temple something of the obtained for that sin, it had to be said that it was an abomination to the Lord. 39 (Dt 24.7). That thief will die-he who has stolen a man-and you will drive the wicked from among you. The Scripture repeats this many times when it commands to kill the wicked. The Apostle used an expression like this, saying: Why do I have to judge the outsiders? Is it not to those within who you judge? Cast out the wicked one among you. Greek has ton put, a term that also appears here. But this word is usually translated as "malignant" rather than "bad." And the text does not say: to put, that is, the bad; but ton put, that is, the evil one. From this it follows that he wanted to refer to the one who does something for which he is worthy of excommunication. In effect, the excommunication now makes in the Church what then did the death penalty. In spite of everything, that saying of the Apostle could also be understood in another way, that is, in the sense that each one will receive the order to cast out of himself the evil or the evil one. This sense would be more acceptable, if the evil or evil, and not the evil one, was found in Greek. Now, it is more credible that this has been said of man than vice. Although it…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Tabernacle — (1.) A house or dwelling-place (Job 5:24; 18:6, etc.). (2.) A portable shrine (comp. Acts 19:24) containing the image of Moloch (Amos 5:26; marg. and R.V., “Siccuth”). (3.) The human body (2 Cor.…
Vows — Voluntary promises which, when once made, were to be kept if the thing vowed was right. They were made under a great variety of circumstances (Gen. 28: 18-22; Lev. 7:16; Num. 30:2-13; Deut. 23:18;…
Abomination · .The hire of a whore and price of a dog, as a consecrated gift — .The hire of a whore and price of a dog, as a consecrated gift
Church · HOUSE OF THE LOR — HOUSE OF THE LOR
Dog (Sodomite?) · Price of, not to be brought into the sanctuary — Price of, not to be brought into the sanctuary
Dog, The · Price of, not to be consecrated — Price of, not to be consecrated
Harlot (Prostitute) · Hire of, not to be received at the temple — Hire of, not to be received at the temple
Offerings · Things forbidden as: The price of fornication — Things forbidden as: The price of fornication
Vows · the price of a “dog” (male prostitute of a pagan shrine) — the price of a “dog” (male prostitute of a pagan shrine)
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
On the other hand, male and female prostitutes of Israelitish descent were not to be tolerated; i.e., it was not to be allowed, that either a male or female among the Israelites should give himself up to prostitution as an act of religious worship. The exclusion of foreign prostitutes was involved in the command to root out the Canaanites. קדּשׁ and קדשׁה were persons who prostituted themselves in the worship of the Canaanitish Astarte (see at Gen 38:21). - "The wages of a prostitute and the money of dogs shall not come into the house of the Lord on account of (ל, for the more remote cause, Ewald, 217) any vow; for even both these (viz., even the prostitute and dog, not merely their dishonou…
a man: The Hebrew word (literally a dog) was a derogatory term for homosexual men, who often took part in Canaanite religious ceremonies.
Rashi on Deuteronomy 23:18
לא תהיה קדשה THERE SHALL BE NO קדשה [OF THE DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL] — i.e. a prostitute, — one who is devoted to and ever ready for illicit intercourse (cf. Rashi on Genesis 38:21 s. v. הקדשה; Rashi on Exodus 19:22 s. v. יתקדשו).
AND THERE SHALL BE NO קדש (OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL] — one ever ready for pederasty (Sanhedrin 54b). Onkelos, however, rendered the verse by לא תהא אתתא מבני ישראל לגבר עבר, “A woman of the daughters of Israel shall not become the wife of a slave”. Such a woman may also be termed a קדשה. because she, too, becomes a prostitute to illicit intercourse, since no marriage ceremony with her (קידושין) can for him have a hold on her (can be a valid ceremony), — for you see, they…
