Bible Strands
Leviticus 19:29
You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord addresses Israel through Moses during the wilderness wanderings, inserting this command between prohibitions on corpse-related mourning rites and requirements to observe the Sabbath.
The words — The Hebrew teḥallēl (you profane) and haznōtāh (by making prostitute) root the command in ritual defilement and sexual commerce, framing the daughter’s body as a conduit for corporate uncleanness.
The thread — The prohibition recurs in Deuteronomy 23:17 barring Israelite children from shrine prostitution and extends to priestly marriage restrictions in Leviticus 21:7.
Why it lands — The text states that commercialized sexual exploitation defiles both individual and national territory, requiring readers to halt practices that transfer covenant people into foreign cultic systems.
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
Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 23:17 No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
- 1 Corinthians 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
- Leviticus 21:7 A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.
- Hosea 4:12 My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.