What Does Deuteronomy 23:17 Mean?
There shall be no set-apart harlot of the daughters of Israel, nor a set-apart male harlot of the sons of Israel.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.THE KEY
The feminine and masculine terms share the root ק־ד־שׁ, “set apart,” bringing the language of consecration into a prohibition of sexual roles.
THE MEANING
The verse sets a communal boundary around the sexual roles named here, addressing both Israel’s daughters and sons. Its Hebrew terms are gendered forms from the same word family associated elsewhere with being set apart.
THE ROOT
קְדֵשָׁה
qĕdēšāh
GROWS FROM
ק־ד־שׁ
Q-D-Sh
Set apart; consecrate.
“set-apart harlot” in this verse is qĕdēšāh. English gives the woman and man different labels, while Hebrew repeats the same root in feminine and masculine forms. The root also appears in words for set-apartness, connecting these roles to consecration vocabulary without changing the verse’s clear prohibition.
ALSO GROWS
qādôš: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
This familiar form makes the shared root audible: the verse’s gendered terms belong to the same word family as language for being set apart.
qōdeš: Holiness; something set apart.
קֹדֶשׁ
It shows how the same root can name the quality or status of being set apart, a shade carried beneath the English labels.
miqdāš: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch extends the root from people and qualities to a place marked as set apart.
THE PATTERN
Set-apartness marks both a community’s identity and the conduct named within it.
Speak to all the assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them, You shall be set apart, for I, the LORD your God, am set apart.For this is the will of God, your setting apart, that you hold yourselves away from sexual immorality.THE THREAD
Speak to all the assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them, You shall be set apart, for I, the LORD your God, am set apart.The word translated “holy” is קָדוֹשׁ (qādôš), from the same root as the feminine and masculine terms in Deuteronomy. The shared root brings their set-apart vocabulary into view while the verses use it differently: Leviticus names the community as holy, while Deuteronomy prohibits the roles named.
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