2 Kings 23:7
And
he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for
the grove.
a. NLT: He
also tore down the living quarters of the male and female shrine prostitutes
that were inside the Temple of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the
Asherah pole.
b. NIV: He
also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the
temple of the LORD, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.
c.
Young’s Literal Translation: And he breaketh down the houses of the
whoremongers that are in the house of Jehovah, where the women
are weaving houses for the shrine.
d. Amplified
Bible: And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes, which were by
the house of the Lord, where the women wove [tent] hangings for the Asherah
[shrines].
e.
Septuagint: And he pulled down the house of the sodomites that were by the house
of the Lord, where the women wove tents for the grove.
f. Stone
Edition Torah/Writings/Prophets: He
demolished the rooms of the idolaters that were in the Temple of HASHEM, where
the women would weave curtains for the Asherah.
1.
“And he brake down the houses of the sodomites…”
a. And he
brake down [5422 * nathats] [Strong: a primitive root; to tear down:--beat
down, break down (out), cast down, destroy, overthrow, pull down, throw down.]
b. houses
[1004 * bayith] [Strong: a house (in the greatest variation of applications,
especially family, etc.):--court, daughter, door, + dungeon, family, + forth
of, X great as would contain, hangings, home(born), (winter)house(-hold),
inside(-ward), palace, place, + prison, + steward, + tablet, temple, web, +
within(-out).] [Gesenius: a movable house or tent.]
c.
sodomites [6945 * qadesh] [Strong: a (quasi) sacred person, i.e. (technically)
a (male) devotee (by prostitution) to licentious idolatry:-- sodomite,
unclean.] [Gesenius: a sodomite, present, consecrated… to Astarte or Venus, and
prostituting himself in her honour. Deuteronomy 23:18; 1 Kings 14:24; 1 Kings
15:12; 22:47; Job 36:14…]
1). Unger’s
Bible Dictionary: Sodomite (Hebrew: qadesh, consecrated, devoted). The
sodomites were not inhabitants of Sodom, not their descendants, but men
consecrated to the unnatural vice of Sodom (Genesis 19:5; compare Romans 1:27)
as a religious rite. This dreadful “consecration”, or rather desecration, was
spread in different forms over Phoenicia, Syria, Phrygia, Assyria, Babylonia.
Ashtaroth, the Greek Astarte, was it chief object. The term was especially
applied to the emasculated priests of Cybele, called Galli, perhaps from the
river Gallus in Bithynia, which was said to make those who drank it mad. In
Deuteronomy 23:17, the toleration of a sodomite was expressly forbidden, and
the pay received by a sodomite was not to be put into the temple treasury (v.
18). “The price of a dog” is a figurative expression used to denote the gains
of a qadesh (sodomite), who was called kinaidos, by the Greeks, from the
doglike manner in which he debased himself (see Revelation 22:15, where the
unclean are called “dogs”).
2). Robert
A. J. Gagnon, “The Bible And Homosexual Practice” pp. 100-102. “There is good
evidence of homosexual cult prostitution in Israel during the period of the
divided monarchy. A number of texts speak of the existence of qedesim (sg. qades, twice as a collective), literally, “holy/sanctified men,”
“consecrated men,” “men dedicated to the deity” (Deuteronomy 23:17, 18; 1 Kings
14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7; Job 36:14) The term is usally rendered in
standard English translations to denote men at cult sites who engaged in
homosexual prostitution: “male temple (or cult, shrine, sacred) prostitutes…the
qedesim… men “whose masculinity had
been transformed into feminity” by a goddess (Asherah? Astarte?)
3). Other
different cultural examples are called assinnus, kurgarrus, and galli. They
were all males, all temple prostitutes, and all sexually serviced males, yet
consecrated to different goddesses. Some were castrated while some were not.
Robert A. J. Gagnon writes of them, “men whose masculinity had been transformed
into femininity by a goddess”. (The Bible And Homosexual Practice). It was from
reading Gagnon’s book where I learned of the similarity between the ancient
male temple prostitute and the contemporary transgendered. These are
individuals who believe they are females, born anatomically as males but
believe they are trapped in a male body, and males, born anatomically as female
but believe they are a male trapped in a female body. Apparently, in the
ancient setting, the anatomically males who believed they were females trapped
in a mans body believed they were that way because they were transformed by a
“goddess” and as a result dedicated themselves to her service by homosexual
prostitution in her temples.
2.
“…that were by the house
of the LORD…”
a. that
were by the house [1004 * bayith] [Strong: probably from 1129 abbreviated;
a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family,
etc.):--court, daughter, door, + dungeon, family, + forth of, X great as would
contain, hangings, home(born), (winter)house(-hold), inside(-ward), palace,
place, + prison, + steward, + tablet, temple, web, + within(-out).]
b. of the
LORD [3068 * Yhovah] [Strong: from 1961; (the) self-Existent or Eternal;
Jehovah, Jewish national name of God:--Jehovah, the Lord.]
1). Four
of the translations given above say “the houses” or the movable tents of the
sodomites were “in” the Temple. Regardless of whether they were “in” the Temple
or “by” the Temple, the comparison of these verses reveal a religious and
cultural corruption. In the 300 years between Rehoboam and Josiah, Judah’s
spiritual culture had degenerated to the degree they allowed homosexuality to
infiltrate the temple worship. During Rehoboam’s reign (931-913 B.C.), the
sodomites were “in the land.” During Josiah’s reign (640-609 B.C.), three
hundred years later, the sodomites were in the Temple. Just as it was a gradual
change in Judah’s spiritual culture, it was a gradual change in other cultures
as well, no doubt including Sodom’s. Remember what the Lord told Abraham in
Genesis 15:16? He said “the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.” It would
take over 400 more years for the whole of Canaan to descend into the
ungodliness that would require their removal. The ungodliness included
homosexuality which at the time the Lord spoke to Abraham had not yet engulfed
the whole of Canaan. In our own nation, no one can deny the gradual change in
our culture. In 1961, Illinois was the first state to decriminalize
homosexuality. In 1986 the Supreme Court upheld state laws forbidding
homosexuality and in 2003, the Supreme Court struck down all state laws
forbidding homosexual conduct.
3.
“…where the women wove hangings for the grove.”
a. where
the women [802 * ‘ishshah] [Strong: feminine of 376 or 582; irregular
plural, nashiym {naw-sheem'}; a woman (used in the same wide sense as 582):--(adulter)ess,
each, every, female, X many, + none, one, + together, wife, woman. Often
unexpressed in English.]
b. wove
[707 * ‘arag] [Strong: a primitive root; to plait or weave:--weaver(-r).]
c. hangings
[1004 * bayith] [Strong: a house (in the greatest variation of applications,
especially family, etc.):--court, daughter, door, + dungeon, family, + forth
of, X great as would contain, hangings, home(born), (winter)house(-hold),
inside(-ward), palace, place, + prison, + steward, + tablet, temple, web, +
within(-out).] [Gesenius: a movable house or tent.]
1). This
is the same Hebrew word for “houses” above.
d. grove
[842 * ‘asherah] [Strong: happy; Asherah (or Astarte) a Phoenician goddess;
also an image of the same:-- grove.]
1). It
appears that the “hangings” were the “houses” and that women made them for the
male temple prostitutes/transgenders to engage in their homosexual behavior to
worship Asherah.
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