◄ Deuteronomy 23:17 ►
No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
Study Bible
No daughter or son of Israel
This phrase establishes a clear directive to the Israelites, emphasizing the collective identity of the people as belonging to God. The Hebrew word for "daughter" is "בַּת" (bat) and for "son" is "בֵּן" (ben), both of which signify not just familial relationships but also covenantal identity. The Israelites are reminded of their unique status as God's chosen people, set apart from the surrounding nations. This identity calls for a lifestyle that reflects their covenant with Yahweh, rejecting practices that would defile their sacred relationship with Him.

is to be
The phrase "is to be" indicates a command, not a suggestion. The Hebrew verb used here is "יהיה" (yihyeh), which is in the imperfect tense, often used to express commands or prohibitions. This grammatical structure underscores the seriousness and non-negotiable nature of the command. It reflects God's authority and the expectation of obedience from His people. The Israelites are to live in accordance with God's laws, which are designed to protect them and maintain their holiness.

a cult prostitute
The term "cult prostitute" is translated from the Hebrew word "קְדֵשָׁה" (qedeshah) for females and "קָדֵשׁ" (qadesh) for males. These terms are derived from the root "קדש" (q-d-sh), meaning "holy" or "set apart." Ironically, in this context, it refers to individuals set apart for pagan religious practices, specifically those involving sexual rites. Such practices were common in Canaanite religions, where prostitution was often linked to fertility rituals. The prohibition against becoming a cult prostitute is a rejection of these pagan practices, which are incompatible with the worship of Yahweh. This command serves to protect the moral and spiritual integrity of the Israelite community, ensuring that their worship remains pure and undefiled by the idolatrous customs of their neighbors.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Israelites
The chosen people of God, who were given the Law through Moses. This command is directed specifically at them, emphasizing their call to holiness and separation from pagan practices.

2. Cult Prostitution
A practice common in ancient Near Eastern religions, where sexual acts were performed in a religious context, often as a form of worship to fertility gods and goddesses.

3. Moses
The leader and prophet who delivered God's laws to the Israelites. He is the central human figure in the book of Deuteronomy, which is a series of speeches given before the Israelites enter the Promised Land.

4. Canaan
The land that the Israelites were about to enter, which was inhabited by people who practiced idolatry and cult prostitution. The Israelites were warned not to adopt these practices.

5. The Promised Land
The land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants, which the Israelites were preparing to enter. It was to be a place where they lived according to God's laws.
Teaching Points
Holiness and Separation
God calls His people to be holy and separate from the practices of the surrounding cultures. This command against cult prostitution is a call to maintain purity and devotion to God alone.

The Body as a Temple
Just as the Israelites were to avoid defiling themselves through pagan practices, Christians today are reminded that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and should be kept pure.

Cultural Influence
The Israelites were warned not to adopt the practices of the Canaanites. Similarly, Christians must be vigilant against adopting worldly practices that contradict God's commands.

Obedience to God's Law
This command underscores the importance of obedience to God's law as a demonstration of faith and commitment to Him.

Sexual Purity
The prohibition against cult prostitution highlights the broader biblical principle of sexual purity, which is relevant for believers today in maintaining integrity and honoring God with their bodies.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does the command in Deuteronomy 23:17 reveal about God's expectations for His people regarding purity and holiness?

2. How can the warning against cult prostitution in ancient Israel be applied to modern-day challenges with sexual immorality?

3. In what ways does the concept of the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:18-20) influence your daily decisions and lifestyle?

4. How can Christians today guard against the influence of cultural practices that are contrary to biblical teachings?

5. Reflect on Romans 12:1-2. How can you present your body as a living sacrifice in your current context, and what changes might this require in your life?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Leviticus 19:29
This verse also warns against prostitution, highlighting the importance of maintaining purity and holiness among the people of Israel.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Paul speaks to the Corinthian church about fleeing sexual immorality, emphasizing that believers' bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 12:1-2
Paul urges believers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, and not to conform to the patterns of this world.
Sermons
Various PreceptsJ. Orr Deuteronomy 23:15-23
Money-Making Must be Above SuspicionR.M. Edgar Deuteronomy 23:17-25
People
Aram, Balaam, Beor, Moses
Places
Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Pethor
Topics
Amongst, Cult, Daughter, Daughters, Harlot, Herself, Loose, None, Prostitute, Shrine, Sodomite, Sons, Strange, Whore, Whoremonger
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Deuteronomy 23:17

     7442   shrine
     8769   idolatry, in OT
     8799   polytheism

Deuteronomy 23:17-18

     5707   male and female
     6040   sinners
     6237   sexual sin, nature of
     6239   prostitution
     8299   love, in relationships

Library
Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature
1. The Traditional Law. - The brief account given in vol. i. p. 100, of the character and authority claimed for the traditional law may here be supplemented by a chronological arrangement of the Halakhoth in the order of their supposed introduction or promulgation. In the first class, or Halakhoth of Moses from Sinai,' tradition enumerates fifty-five, [6370] which may be thus designated: religio-agrarian, four; [6371] ritual, including questions about clean and unclean,' twenty-three; [6372] concerning …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

That the Employing Of, and Associating with the Malignant Party, According as is Contained in the Public Resolutions, is Sinful and Unlawful.
That The Employing Of, And Associating With The Malignant Party, According As Is Contained In The Public Resolutions, Is Sinful And Unlawful. If there be in the land a malignant party of power and policy, and the exceptions contained in the Act of Levy do comprehend but few of that party, then there need be no more difficulty to prove, that the present public resolutions and proceedings do import an association and conjunction with a malignant party, than to gather a conclusion from clear premises. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Here Then Shall These Persons in their Turn be in Another More Sublime Degree...
28. Here then shall these persons in their turn be in another more sublime degree of righteousness outdone, by them who shall so order themselves, that every day they shall betake them into the fields as unto pasture, and at what time they shall find it, pick up their meal, and having allayed their hunger, return. But plainly, on account of the keepers of the fields, how good were it, if the Lord should deign to bestow wings also, that the servants of God being found in other men's fields should …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Lessons for Worship and for Work
'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few. 3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. 4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Introductory Note to the Works of Origen.
[a.d. 185-230-254.] The reader will remember the rise and rapid development of the great Alexandrian school, and the predominance which was imparted to it by the genius of the illustrious Clement. [1865] But in Origen, his pupil, who succeeded him at the surprising age of eighteen, a new sun was to rise upon its noontide. Truly was Alexandria "the mother and mistress of churches" in the benign sense of a nurse and instructress of Christendom, not its arrogant and usurping imperatrix. The full details …
Origen—Origen De Principiis

Excursus on Usury.
The famous canonist Van Espen defines usury thus: "Usura definitur lucrum ex mutuo exactum aut speratum;" [96] and then goes on to defend the proposition that, "Usury is forbidden by natural, by divine, and by human law. The first is proved thus. Natural law, as far as its first principles are concerned, is contained in the decalogue; but usury is prohibited in the decalogue, inasmuch as theft is prohibited; and this is the opinion of the Master of the Sentences, of St. Bonaventura, of St. Thomas …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

Jesus Defends Disciples who Pluck Grain on the Sabbath.
(Probably While on the Way from Jerusalem to Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 1-8; ^B Mark II. 23-28; ^C Luke VI. 1-5. ^b 23 And ^c 1 Now it came to pass ^a 1 At that season ^b that he ^a Jesus went { ^b was going} on the { ^c a} ^b sabbath day through the grainfields; ^a and his disciples were hungry and began ^b as they went, to pluck the ears. ^a and to eat, ^c and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. [This lesson fits in chronological order with the last, if the Bethesda …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

That it is not Lawful for the Well Affected Subjects to Concur in Such an Engagement in War, and Associate with the Malignant Party.
That It Is Not Lawful For The Well Affected Subjects To Concur In Such An Engagement In War, And Associate With The Malignant Party. Some convinced of the unlawfulness of the public resolutions and proceedings, in reference to the employing of the malignant party, yet do not find such clearness and satisfaction in their own consciences as to forbid the subjects to concur in this war, and associate with the army so constituted. Therefore it is needful to speak something to this point, That it is …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Canaan
Canaan was the inheritance which the Israelites won for themselves by the sword. Their ancestors had already settled in it in patriarchal days. Abraham "the Hebrew" from Babylonia had bought in it a burying-place near Hebron; Jacob had purchased a field near Shechem, where he could water his flocks from his own spring. It was the "Promised Land" to which the serfs of the Pharaoh in Goshen looked forward when they should again become free men and find a new home for themselves. Canaan had ever been …
Archibald Sayce—Early Israel and the Surrounding Nations

Brief Directions How to Read the Holy Scriptures once Every Year Over, with Ease, Profit, and Reverence.
But forasmuch, that as faith is the soul, so reading and meditating on the word of God, are the parent's of prayer, therefore, before thou prayest in the morning, first read a chapter in the word of God; then meditate awhile with thyself, how many excellent things thou canst remember out of it. As--First, what good counsels or exhortations to good works and to holy life. Secondly, what threatenings of judgments against such and such a sin; and what fearful examples of God's punishment or vengeance …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Commerce
The remarkable change which we have noticed in the views of Jewish authorities, from contempt to almost affectation of manual labour, could certainly not have been arbitrary. But as we fail to discover here any religious motive, we can only account for it on the score of altered political and social circumstances. So long as the people were, at least nominally, independent, and in possession of their own land, constant engagement in a trade would probably mark an inferior social stage, and imply …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Nature of Covenanting.
A covenant is a mutual voluntary compact between two parties on given terms or conditions. It may be made between superiors and inferiors, or between equals. The sentiment that a covenant can be made only between parties respectively independent of one another is inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Parties to covenants in a great variety of relative circumstances, are there introduced. There, covenant relations among men are represented as obtaining not merely between nation and nation, …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Scriptures Showing the Sin and Danger of Joining with Wicked and Ungodly Men.
Scriptures Showing The Sin And Danger Of Joining With Wicked And Ungodly Men. When the Lord is punishing such a people against whom he hath a controversy, and a notable controversy, every one that is found shall be thrust through: and every one joined with them shall fall, Isa. xiii. 15. They partake in their judgment, not only because in a common calamity all shares, (as in Ezek. xxi. 3.) but chiefly because joined with and partakers with these whom God is pursuing; even as the strangers that join …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
BY A.E. GRIMKE. "Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place: but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer:--and so will I go in unto the king, …
Angelina Emily Grimke—An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South

The Tenth Commandment
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.' Exod 20: 17. THIS commandment forbids covetousness in general, Thou shalt not covet;' and in particular, Thy neighbour's house, thy neighbour's wife, &c. I. It forbids covetousness in general. Thou shalt not covet.' It is lawful to use the world, yea, and to desire so much of it as may keep us from the temptation …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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