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What Does the Bible Say About..Prostitution?

What does the bible say about prostitution?

Answer

“Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.” (Leviticus 19:29)
“Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.” (Deuteronomy 22:21, speaking of a woman who married while falsely claiming to be a virgin)
“There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 23:17)
“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no pimp, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” (Ephesians 5:3-5) (Fornication is any sexual activity outside of marriage, which would include prostitution.)
“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but pimps and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrews 13:4) (Adulterers would be anyone who has sex with a married person. Most prostitutes don’t ask.)

The prophets often talk of people who have stopped following God as if they were prostitutes or men that had gone over to prostitutes. Note especially the book of Hosea. Hosea was told to marry a prostitute as a sign to Israel that they had acted against God like a prostitute against her husband.