There shall be no whore of the daughters of
Israel
The word for "whore" is "kedeshah", which properly signifies an
"holy" one; and here, by an antiphrasis, an unholy, an impure
person, one that is defiled by man; (See Gill on Genesis
38:18). Jarchi interprets the word, one that makes
herself common, that is sanctified, or set apart; that is, one
that separates herself for such service, and prostitutes herself
to everyone that passes by: but some understand this not of
common harlots in the streets, but of sacred whores, or such as
were consecrated to Heathen deities, as such there were to Venus.
Strabo F24 tells us that the temple of Venus
at Corinth was so rich, that more than a thousand of those sacred
harlots were kept, whom men and women had devoted to that
goddess; and so a multitude of the same sort were at Comana,
which he calls little Corinth F25; now these of all harlots
being the most abominable are forbidden to be among the daughters
of Israel:
nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel:
by the same rule that "kedeshah" is rendered "a whore" in the
preceding clause, "kadesh" should be rendered "an whoremonger"
here, as in the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions; though
Aben Ezra interprets it passively, one that is lain with, and
Jarchi one that is prepared to lie with a male, that prostitutes
his body in this unnatural way; and it looks as if there were
such sort of persons sacred to idols, since we read of the houses
of the sodomites, which were by, or rather in the house of the
Lord, ( 2 Kings 23:7
) .