2 Kings 23:7

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.