Leviticus 18:30 & Deuteronomy 23:17

Leviticus 18:30 & Deuteronomy 23:17

Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.

 

a. NLT: So obey my instructions, and do not defile yourselves by committing any of these detestable practices that were committed by the people who lived in the land before you. I am the LORD your God.” [Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.]

b. ASV: Therefore shall ye keep my charge, that ye practise not any of these abominable customs, which were practised before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am Jehovah your God. [Thomas Nelson & Sons first published the American Standard Version in 1901. This translation of the Bible is in the public domain.]

c. Amplified Bible: So keep My charge: do not practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you and defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God. [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

d. Stone Edition THE CHUMASH, Rabbinic Commentary: You shall safeguard My charge not to do any of the abominable traditions that were done before you and not contaminate yourselves through them; I am HASHEM, your God. [The Artscroll Series/Stone Edition, THE CHUMASH; Copyright 1998, 2000 by Mesorah Publications, Ldt.]

1. “Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance…”

a. [Therefore shall ye] keep [Strong: 8104 shamar shaw-mar':  a primitive root; properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.:--beward, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep(-er, self), mark, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch(-man).]

b. [Strong: 853 'eth ayth apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely):--(as such unrepresented in English).]

c. [mine] ordinance [Strong: 4931 mishmereth mish-mer'-reth fem. of 4929; watch, the act (custody), or (concr.) the sentry, the post; obj. preservation, or (concr.) safe; fig. observance, i.e. (abstr.) duty or (obj.) a usage or party:--charge, keep, or to be kept, office, ordinace, safeguard, ward, watch.] [Gesenius: custody, guard, station, a keeping, an observance, a law, a rite.]

1). This Hebrew word is translated “charge” 50 times. In the first example it is referring to Abraham and the other examples it is referring to the non-priestly families of the tribe of Levi and their responsibilities concerning the Tabernacle.

a). Genesis 26:5  Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

b). Numbers 3:7 And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle.

c). Numbers 3:25 And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,

2. “…that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs…”

a. [that ye] commit [Strong: 6213 `asah aw-saw' a primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application (as follows):--accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, X certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, + displease, do, (ready) dress(-ed), (put in) execute(-ion), exercise, fashion, + feast, (fight-)ing man, + finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfill, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, + hinder, hold ((a feast)), X indeed, + be industrious, + journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, + officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, pracise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, X sacrifice, serve, set, shew, X sin, spend, X surely, take, X thoroughly, trim, X very, + vex, be (warr-)ior, work(-man), yield, use.]

1). The use of this word and its definition reflects back to the opening verses of Leviticus 18 and the ordinances of the LORD as opposed to the ordinances, laws, and statutes of Canaan. The ordinances of the Canaanites concerning these practices were either compulsory or gave them license to do them.  

2). AMG The Complete Word Study Dictionary Old Testament: A verb meaning to do, to make, to accomplish, to complete. This frequently used Hebrew verb conveys the central notion of performing an activity with a distinct purpose, a moral obligation, or a goal in view (cf. Genesis 11:6). Particularly, it is used in conjunction with God’s commands (Deuteronomy 16:12).

3). I want to add with the above definition that this word adds a sort of “official obedience”. With the above in mind I wanted to explore the use of this Hebrew verb in examples of its use. According to Blue Letter Bible it is translated “commit” over 50 times. In fact it is used 5 times in the passage Leviticus 18:26-30. Other examples are:

a). Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

b). Leviticus 20:23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

4). According to Blue Letter Bible it is translated “execute” in 50 different verses. In most of the verses it is referring to carrying out 

a). Exodus12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I  am the LORD.

b). Deuteronomy 33:21 And he [Gad] provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel.

c). 2 Samuel 8:15 And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.

5). Once it is translated “govern”.

a). 1 Kings 21:7 And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

b. not [Strong: 1115 biltiy bil-tee' constructive feminine of 1086 (equivalent to 1097); properly, a failure of, i.e. (used only as a negative particle, usually with a prepositional prefix) not, except, without, unless, besides, because not, until, etc.:--because un(satiable), beside, but, + continual, except, from, lest, neither, no more, none, not, nothing, save, that no, without.]

c. [any one] [Strong: 2708 chuqqah khook-kaw' feminine of 2706, and meaning substantially the same:--appointed, custom, manner, ordinance, site, statute.]

d. [of these] abominable [Strong: 8441 tow`ebah to-ay-baw' or tonebah {to-ay-baw'}; feminine active participle of 8581; properly, something disgusting (morally), i.e. (as noun) an abhorrence; especially idolatry or (concretely) an idol:-- abominable (custom, thing), abomination.] [Gesenius: abomination, something abominable.]

c. customs [Strong: 2708 chuqqah khook-kaw' feminine of 2706,  and meaning substantially the same: appointed, custom, manner, ordinance, site, statute. ] [Gesenius: that which is established or defined, law, ordinance, practice, custom, right, privilege.] [Blue Letter Bible: This word is translated “statute” 77 times and “ordinance” 22 times.]

1). The rest of chapter 18 in Leviticus, particularly verses 6-23 then lists a whole range of immoral sexual practices that the cultures of Egypt and Canaan not only practiced but made ordinances concerning them. It looks as if there were laws on the books in Egypt and in the Canaanite nations regarding their incest, their child sacrifice, their homosexuality, their bestiality. They codified their immorality into their legal systems, they legislated their immorality. America is more and more becoming a Canaanite nation. We are codifying our immorality into our legal system, we are legislating our immorality in the same way the Canaanite nations did. When Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, we codified child sacrifice into our legal system, just as Canaan did in Leviticus 18:21. When Lawrence v. Texas was decided, all the remaining state laws criminalizing homosexual behavior were throw out and we codified homosexual behavior into our legal system just as Canaan did in Leviticus 18:22. It was the same with Homosexual marriage, when  Obergefell v. Hodges was decided we codified immorality into our legal system.  America is legislating immorality.

2). Verification that the prohibited sexual practices of Leviticus 18:6-23 were the sexual practices of the nations of Canaan is found in the ending verses of the chapter.

a). Leviticus 18:24-30 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.

b). The LORD clearly says in these verses that these were the sexual practices of the nations of Canaan.

c). The Hebrew word translated “customs” in Leviticus 18:30 is the same Hebrew word translated “ordinances” in Leviticus 18:3, 4. Hence when the passage ends with the description of these customs to be “abominable”, we can say with authority that laws that protect homosexuality as a constitutional right are abominable laws.  

3. “…which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein…”

a. which [Strong: 834 'aher ash-er' a primitive relative pronoun (of every gender and number); who, which, what, that; also (as an adverb and a conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.:--X after, X alike, as (soon as), because, X every, for, + forasmuch, + from whence, + how(-soever), X if, (so) that ((thing) which, wherein), X though, + until, + whatsoever, when, where (+ -as, -in, -of, -on, -soever, -with), which, whilst, + whither(- soever), who(-m, -soever, -se). As it is indeclinable, it is often accompanied by the personal pronoun expletively, used to show the connection.]

b. [were] committed [Strong: 6213 `asah aw-saw';  a primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application (as follows):--accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, X certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, + displease, do, (ready) dress(-ed), (put in) execute(-ion), exercise, fashion, + feast, (fight-)ing man, + finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfill, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, + hinder, hold ((a feast)), X indeed, + be industrious, + journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, + officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, pracise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, X sacrifice, serve, set, shew, X sin, spend, X surely, take, X thoroughly, trim, X very, + vex, be (warr-)ior, work(-man), yield, use.]

b. before [you] [Strong: 6440 paniym paw-neem';  plural (but always as singular) of an unused noun (paneh {paw-neh'}; from 6437); the face (as the part that turns); used in a great variety of applications (literally and figuratively); also (with prepositional prefix) as a preposition (before, etc.):--+ accept, a-(be- )fore(-time), against, anger, X as (long as), at, + battle, + because (of), + beseech, countenance, edge, + employ, endure, + enquire, face, favour, fear of, for, forefront(-part), form(-er time, -ward), from, front, heaviness, X him(-self), + honourable, + impudent, + in, it, look(-eth) (- s), X me, + meet, X more than, mouth, of, off, (of) old (time), X on, open, + out of, over against, the partial, person, + please, presence, propect, was purposed, by reason of, + regard, right forth, + serve, X shewbread, sight, state, straight, + street, X thee, X them(-selves), through (+ - out), till, time(-s) past, (un-)to(-ward), + upon, upside (+ down), with(- in, + -stand), X ye, X you.]

c. [that ye] defile [Strong: 2930 tame' taw-may': a primitive root; to be foul, especially in a ceremial or moral sense (contaminated):--defile (self), pollute (self), be (make, make self, pronounce) unclean, X utterly.] [Gesenius: To be or become unclean, to be polluted]

d. not [yourselves therein] [Strong: 3808 lo' lo or lowi {lo}; or loh (Deut. 3:11) {lo}; a primitive particle; not (the simple or abs. negation); by implication, no; often used with other particles (as follows):--X before, + or else, ere, + except, ig(-norant), much, less, nay, neither, never, no((-ne), -r, (-thing)), (X as though...,(can-), for) not (out of), of nought, otherwise, out of, + surely, + as truly as, + of a truth, + verily, for want, + whether, without.

4. “…I am the LORD your God.”

a. LORD [Strong: 3058 Yehuw' yay-hoo' from 1961; (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God:--Jehovah, the Lord.]

b. [your] God [Strong: 430 'elohiym el-o-heem' plural of 433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative:--angels, X exceeding, God (gods)(-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.]

Deuteronomy 23:17

There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

a. NLT: “No Israelite, whether man or woman, may become a temple prostitute.

b. NIV: No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.

c. Young’s Literal Translation: 'There is not a whore among the daughters of Israel, nor is there a whoremonger among the sons of Israel;

d. Amplified Bible: There shall be no cult prostitute among the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a cult prostitute (a sodomite) among the sons of Israel.

e. Septuagint: There shall not be a harlot of the daughters of Israel, and there shall not be a fornicator of the sons of Israel; there shall not be an idolatress of the daughters of Israel, and there shall not be an initiated person of the sons of Israel.

f. Stone Edition Torah/Writings/Prophets: [In Jewish translations this verse is Deuteronomy 23:18] There shall not be a promiscuous woman among the daughters of Israel, and there shall not be a promiscuous man among the sons of Israel.

1.” There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel…”

a. There shall be no whore [6948 * qedeshah][Gesenius: female temple prostitute, harlot.][Strong: a female devotee (i.e. prostitute):--harlot, whore.]

b. of the daughters 1323 * bath] [Strong: from 1129 (as feminine of 1121); a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively):--apple (of the eye), branch, company, daughter, X first, X old, + owl, town, village.]

c. of Israel [3478 * Yisra'el] [Strong: from 8280 and 410; he will rule as God; Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity: --Israel.]

2. “…nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.”

a. nor a sodomite [6945 * qadesh][Gesenius: male temple prostitute.][Strong: a (quasi) sacred person, i.e. (technically) a (male) devotee (by prostitution) to licentious idolatry:-- sodomite, unclean.]

1). This Hebrew word translated “sodomite” in Deuteronomy 23:17 is found a total of six times in the Old Testament. It is translated five times as “sodomite” and one time as “unclean”. 

a). Job 36:14 They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean. 

b). 1 Kings 14:24 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.

c). 1 Kings 15:12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

d). 1 Kings 22:46 And the remnant of the sodomites, which remained in the days of his father Asa, he took out of the land.

e). 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.

2). These were not citizens of Sodom as the translation may imply, because by the time four of these instances are written of, beginning in Deuteronomy and proceeding chronologically through 2 Kings, Sodom and the other “cities of the plain”, had already been destroyed for approximately 400 years. The exception is the occurrence in Job 36:14, because some scholars (and I agree with them) believe Job is the oldest book in the Bible, that it pre-dates the five books of Moses, Deuteronomy being the last that Moses wrote.

3). 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 its 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”).

4). 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?)

5). 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 (though not consecrated to a goddess). 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. What we are seeing in America and across the world is just a modern manifestation of this deception and confusion.