Deuteronomy 23

This passage is akin to the foregoing; for in the first clause He forbids that girls should be prostituted. Some think that a whore is called in Hebrew hsdq, kedeshah, because she is exposed to, and prepared for sin;¹ but her pollution, the opposite of sanctity, seems rather to be expressed by antiphrasis. At any rate, a precept of chastity is given, that it should not be lawful for unmarried girls to have connection with men. In the second clause there is some ambiguity, "There shall be no sdq, kadesh, of the sons of Israel;" for in other passages it is clearly used for a catamite, or male harlot, but there is no reason why it should not be rendered a fornicator. In this sense the word seems to be used in the Book of Job: "The hypocrites shall die in youth, (or in the flower of their age,) and their life is among the Mysdq, kedeshim," which is equivalent to their being infamous and shameful in life. (Job 36:14.) But if it be preferred to apply it to sodomy, all impurity is condemned by synecdoche.