Leviticus 19:29
Make not thy daughter a common strumpet, lest the land be defiled, and filled with wickedness.
Open Leviticus 19:29 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ne prostituas filiam tuam, ne contaminetur terra et impleatur piaculo.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐ βεβηλώσεις τὴν θυγατέρα σου ἐκπορνεῦσαι αὐτήν· καὶ οὐκ ἐκπορνεύσει ἡ γῆ, καὶ ἡ γῆ πλησθήσεται ἀνομίας.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אַל תְּחַלֵּ֥ל אֶֽת בִּתְּךָ֖ לְהַזְנוֹתָ֑הּ וְלֹא תִזְנֶ֣ה הָאָ֔רֶץ וּמָלְאָ֥ה הָאָ֖רֶץ זִמָּֽה
Haydock's commentary
Strumpet, which was done formerly in the honour of idols. "They gave to Venus the prostitutions of their daughters." (St. Augustine, City of God xviii. 5.) "In Cyprus they lead the unmarried women to the sea-shore, in order to acquire a dowry by these means on certain stated days, as a libation to Venus." (Justin.)
Such things were common in the East. See Lucian de dea Syr.; Strabo xvi., Joel (iii. 3,) reproaches the Jews with prostituting their sons and daughters for bread; for there were also effeminate men among them. (3 Kings xiv. 24 and 4 Kings xxiii. 7.) See Baruch vi. 42 and Osee iv. 14. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter III. Against Men Who Embellish Themselves
Luxury has deranged all things; it has disgraced man. A luxurious niceness seeks everything, attempts everything, forces everything, coerces nature. Men play the part of women, and women that of men, contrary to nature; women are at once wives and husbands: no passage is closed against libidinousness; and their promiscuous lechery is a public institution, and luxury is domesticated. O miserable spectacle! horrible conduct! Such are the trophies of your social licentiousness which are exhibited: the evidence of these deeds are the prostitutes. Alas for such wickedness! Besides, the wretches know not how many tragedies the uncertainty of intercourse produces. …