Leviticus 19:29

29 " 'You shall not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, {lest the land be prostituted and the land fill up with depravity}.

Leviticus 19:29 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 19:29

Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore,
&c.] Not by delaying to marry her, which is the sense the Jews give {l}, but it refers to a wicked practice among the Phoenicians or Canaanites, Athanasius F13 speaks of, whose women used to prostitute themselves in the temples of their idols; and to such filthy services, in a religious way, the Israelites, in imitation of them, are forbid to expose their daughters: such filthy practices, under a notion of religion, were committed at Babylon, Corinth, and other places; (See Gill on Micah 1:7); lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness:
of the wickedness of whoredom, both corporeal and spiritual, fornication and idolatry; both of which would be promoted by such abominable practices, and in process of time the land be filled with them.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 Targ. Jon. in loc. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 76. 1.
F13 Contra Gentes, p. 21.

Leviticus 19:29 In-Context

27 You shall not round off the corner [hair] of your head, and you shall not trim the corner of your beard.
28 And you shall not make a slash in your body for a dead person, nor shall you make on yourselves a tattoo's mark; I [am] Yahweh.
29 " 'You shall not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, {lest the land be prostituted and the land fill up with depravity}.
30 You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I [am] Yahweh.
31 " 'You shall not turn to the mediums and to the soothsayers; you shall not seek [them] to become unclean with them; I [am] Yahweh your God.

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Singular
  • [b]. Singular
  • [c]. Literally "and the land does not prostitute and the land fills up depravity" or "so that the land does not prostitute and the land fills up depravity"
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