Harlot

Harlot translates two Hebrew terms in the Old Testament that must be distinguished. Zonah (Genesis 34:31; 38:15) is the common word for a prostitute — a woman who exchanges sexual access for payment. Qedeshah (Genesis 38:21–22; Deuteronomy 23:17), rendered "harlot" in the KJV, more precisely denotes a cult prostitute associated with the fertility shrines of Canaan — a role explicitly prohibited in Mosaic law. The Mosaic code condemned all prostitution, forbade the bringing of a harlot's wages into the temple (Deuteronomy 23:18), and required that priests not marry a harlot (Leviticus 21:14).

Despite this moral condemnation, harlots appear in several pivotal narratives: Rahab the harlot of Jericho protected the Israelite spies and is listed in the faith roll of Hebrews 11:31 and in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5; James 2:25). Jephthah's mother was a harlot (Judges 11:1). Samson visited a harlot at Gaza (Judges 16:1). Solomon adjudicated between two harlots (1 Kings 3:16). The prophets, especially Hosea (chapters 1–3), Jeremiah (3:1–3), and Ezekiel (chapters 16; 23), used the harlot metaphor extensively for Israel's unfaithfulness to God through idolatry. In the New Testament, Jesus declared that "harlots" were entering the kingdom before the self-righteous (Matthew 21:31–32), and Revelation's great harlot Babylon (Revelation 17–18) symbolizes the empire of spiritual unfaithfulness.