Deuteronomy 23 Slaves and Prostitutes

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 23:15 If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand them over to their master. 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress them.

17 No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. 18 You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute[d] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both.​

The first commentary this morning comes from Bible.org.

What freedom and protection! All other ancient Near Eastern law codes demanded the return (and with it probable death) of runaway slaves. The Mosaic covenant focuses on the rights and protection of the weak, powerless, socially ostracized, and poor. The catch phrase is "the widow, the orphan, and the alien"

"cult prostitute" This is a feminine term "holy one". It shows the presence of cultic prostitution in Canaan (Exod. 34:15-16; II Kgs. 23:7). However, there is little hard archaeological evidence of this in Canaan. If there was cultic prostitution and these abominations developed also within Israeli society, it makes them all the more evil (Luke 12:48).

"cult prostitute" This is a masculine term "holy one". In this period a male prostitute is called "a dog".

"the hire of a harlot" This is a different word from v. 17 (Hosea 9:1). This is the common term for a fertility worship partner. There is some debate whether the terms for cult prostitution in v. 17 are parallel to this term of v. 18 or if v. 18 refers to non-cultic prostitution. In many texts there is a distinction, but here the parallelism seems purposeful. The wages charged are attempted to be given back to the deity (Micah 1:7). YHWH refuses all revenue from sexual fees!

"the wages of a dog" This is the fee charged by a male prostitute. YHWH rejects all fertility worship and its income!​

Of course the easy English commentary is short as sweet.

Sometimes, when a slave was in a foreign country, he ran away from his master. The law allowed him to live in safety wherever he wanted to live. The Israelites must not make these people to be slaves again.

Israelites must not sell their bodies for sex. They certainly must not do that in ceremonies of religion. The Canaanites did that. They worshipped the false female god called Astarte. If anybody earned money in that way, he or she must not give the money to God. God hated it when people used their bodies in that way.​

The last commentary is from bibletrack.org.

Most students of the Old Testament agree that this regulation concerns a slave who has escaped from his master in some foreign land and sought refuge in Israel. We do know that, in addition to slaves captured in battle, debt slavery and voluntary slavery existed in Israel and was protected by law, so it seems unlikely that this law applies to those two categories of slaves. We simply aren't given any detail beyond these two verses.

Whoredom was not permitted among the daughters of Israel. The "price of a dog" speaks to money acquired by dishonorable means - probably referring to the male prostitute. Sodomy was absolutely forbidden in Israel.​

Things were so much different back then.... I find it interesting that a runaway slave would be free while slaves of the Israelites continued to live as slaves. Maybe that's because the Israelites had a different idea when it comes to slaves. After being slaves in Egypt, beaten on a regular basis and made to make bricks without straw because there were too many hours in the day, they understood the value of personal freedom.

If my hypothesis is correct; if the Israelites understood the value of personal freedom, then why did the Israelites allow slavery anyway? IMHO.... the slaves in Israel were more like working for food and shelter because they could not afford it on their own. IMHO...

I had this random thought about the shrine prostitutes.... do you think people who build crystal palaces have a hard time preaching on the topic of shrine prostitutes?

:coffee:
 
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