The words ^lIJH'n rniT^l^ A.V, "and they washed his armor" (1 Kings xxii, 38), should be, "and the har- lots washed," which is not only the natural rendering, but ill accordance with the Sept, and Josephus,
Since the Hebrews regarded Jehovah as the husband of his people, by virtue of the covenant he had made with them (Jer. iii, 1), therefore to commit fornication is a very common metaphor in the Scriptures to de- note defection on their part from that covenant, and especially by the practice of idolatry. See Fornica- tion, ilence the degeneracy of Jerusalem is illustra- ted by the symbol of a harlot (Isa. i, 21), and even that of heathen cities, as of Nineveh (Nah. iii, 4). Under this figure the prophet Ezekiel delivers the tremen- dous invectives contained in chaps, xvi, xxiii. In the prophecy of Hosea the illustration is carried to a start- ling extent. The prophet seems commanded by the Lord to take " a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms" (i, 2), and "to love an adulteress" (iii, 1). It has, indeed, been much disputed whether these trans- actions were real, or ])assed in vision only; but the idea itself, and the diversified ajjplications of it throughout the prophecy, render it one of the most effective por- tions of Scriptiure. See Hosea.
2. ridnp (kedeshah', from 'C'^';^. to consecrate, occurs Gen. xxxviii, 15, 21, 22; Deut. xxiii, 17; Hos. iv, 14). It has ah-eady been obsen-ed tliat the jiroper meaning of the word is consecrated jirostitute. The very early
HARLOT
V6
HARMONY
allusion to such persons, in the first of these passages, af,Tees with the accounts of them in ancient heathen writers. Herodotus refers to the " abominable custom of the Babylonians, who compelled ever\' native female to attend the temple of Venus once in her life, and to prostitute herself in honor of the goddess" (i, 199 ; Ba- ruch, vi, 43). Strabo calls prostitutes, who, it is well known, were at Athens dedicated to Venus, upoSovXoi yuva'iKic, "consecrated servants," "votaries" {Geoff.viu, 37«; (Jrotius, Annotat. on Banich ; Beloe's Herodotus, Notes, i, 272, LoncL 1806). The transaction related in Numb. XV, 1-15 (compare Psa. cvi,28) seems connected witli idolatry. The prohibition in Deut. xxiii, 17, " there shall be no H'^np, ' whore,' of the daughters of Israel," is intended to exclude such devotees from the worship of Jeliovah (see other allusions, Job xxxvi, U ; 1 Kings xiv, 24; XV, 12). The law forbids (Lev. xix, 29) the father's compelling his. daughter to sin, but does not mention it as a vohmtary mode of life on her part with- out his complicity. It could, indeed, hardly be so. The provision of Lev. xxi, 9, regarding the priest's daughter, m.-iy Iiave arisen from the fact of his home being less guarded, owing to his absence when ministering, as well as frtPin the scandal to sanctity so involved. Perhaps such abominations might, if not thus severely marked, Icail the way to the excesses of Gentile ritualistic forni- cation, to which, indeed, when so near the sanctuary, they might be viewed as approximating (Michaelis, Laws of Af OSes, art. 268). Yet it seems to be assumed that the harlot class would exist, and the prohibition of Deut. xxiii, 18, forbidding offerings from the wages of such sin, is i)erhaps due to the contagion of heathen ex- ami)lc, in whose worship practices abounded which the Israelites were taught to abhor. The term there espe- cially refers to the impure worship of the SvTian Astarte (Numb. XXV, 1; comp. Herod, i, 199; Justin, xviii, 5; Strabo, viii, .S78; xii, 559; Val. Max. ii, 6, 15; August. J)e Cii: Dei, iv, 4), whose votaries, as idolatry progress- ed, would be recruited from the daughters of Israel ; hence tlie common mention of both these sins in the I'rophcts, the one, indeed, being a metaphor of the oth- er (Isa. i, 21 ; Ivii, 8 ; Jer. ii, 20 ; comp. Exod. xxxiv, 15, 16; Jer. iii, 1, 2, 6; Ezek. xvi, xxiii; Hos. i, 2; ii, 4, 5; iv, H, 13, 14, 15 ; v, 3). The latter class would grow np witli the growth of great cities and of foreign inter- course, and hardly could enter into the view of the Mo- saic institutes.
3- '^'7?? ('"'^■"y'^'>f™n>'^53,tO!(7no/-e),"the strange woman" (i Kings xi,l; Prov.v,'20; vi,24; vii,5; xxiii, 27 ; Sept. aXKorpia ; Vulg. aliena, extranea). It seems probable tliat some of the Hebrews in later times inter- l)reted the prohibition against fornication (Deut. xxii, 41) as limited to females of their own nation, and that tlie "strange women" in question were Canaanites and other (Icntiies (Josh, xxiii, 13). In the case of Solo- mon they are specified as Moabites, Ammonites, Edom- ites, Zidonians, and Hittites. Tlie passages referred to discover tlie character of these females. To tlie same class belongs n^T {zarah', from '^!|T,to turn in as a visit- «>■);'' 'I'C stratiije woman" (Prov. v, 3, 20; xxii, 14: xxiii, 33 ; yvvi] iru{)vi}, aWorpia ; meretrix, (diena, ex- Iramii): it is s<jmetimcs found in fiOl, niT iTi'X (Prov. ii, 16; vii, :>). To the same class of females likewise belongs niinps n'rx {kesilut/i', folly), '^thefoolM woman," i. e. by a common association of ideas in the •Shemitic dialects, swf,d (Psa. xiv, 1 ). The description in l*rov. IX, 14, etc. lUustrates the character of the fe- male 90 designated. To this may be ad<led y-| TrX (ni, wronr/), " the evil woman" (Prov. v, 24).