Bible Strands
1 Kings 14:24
There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the religious condition of Judah during Rehoboam’s reign, immediately after detailing the construction of high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles across the land.
The words — קָדֵשׁ (qādeš) = male shrine prostitute; תּוֹעֲבֹת (ṭôʿăḇōṯ) = abominations.
The thread — The prohibition against this practice appears in Deuteronomy 23:17, is later addressed by King Asa in 1 Kings 15:12, and is finally dismantled during Josiah’s reforms in 2 Kings 23:7.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to see that adopting foreign cultic customs directly violates the command to separate from the nations God previously drove out.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 23:17 No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
- 1 Kings 15:12 He banished the male shrine prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
- 2 Kings 23:7 He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
- Genesis 19:5 They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!”
- 1 Kings 22:46 He banished from the land the male shrine prostitutes who remained from the days of his father Asa.
- Judges 19:22 While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!”
- Romans 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.