Dosłowne i metaforyczne cudzołóstwo i prostytucja: n)p i znh w Biblii Hebrajskiej
Authors: Slawik Jakub 
Published: October 2024

The book contains an analysis of all places in the Hebrew Bible (and the Hebrew Sir) where the roots znh (134 times, plus four times in the Hebrew Sir) and n)p (34 times) appear. Employing primarily historical-critical methods, efforts have been made to establish the exact meaning of the two root words, both their respective verb and noun forms. Following a review of previous research pertaining to these words (in Chapter 2), Chapter 3 deals with text passages in which they are used in a literal sense, considering their occurrence in legal texts, narrative texts, wisdom sentences and other passages. The longest Chapter 4 is devoted to passages in which these roots occur in a figurative sense. In the vast majority of cases the znh root has to be interpreted figuratively. Conclusions are summarised in the final Chapter 5. Although both roots mostly refer to sexual transgressions and improprieties, n)p means only “to commit adultery”, i.e. “to break marital fidelity”, and refers to the intercourse of a married woman with another man or a man with a married woman (it also includes inchoate marriage). According to the legal texts, the punishment was to be death (Lv 20:10; Dt 22:22), but Hos 2:4(-5) and Jer 3:8 suggest the possibility of divorce, and Pr 6:35 that of offering compensation to the husband of an adulterous wife (which did not have to be accepted). On the other hand, the roots znh has a broader meaning, one that cannot always be precisely determined: unlawful premarital intercourse, (paid) prostitution. Zonah may not only have been a prostitute or a promiscuous woman, but also one deprived of patriarchal protection or living outside such a framework, which does not exclude that she may also have engaged in prostitution or been forced into it. It never denotes adultery, however; the two roots are semantically distinct. The issue of the penalisation of acts described by the znh root is problematic. According to Lv 21:9, a priest’s daughter having premarital sexual relations (if the verse is not to be understood figuratively) would be punished by death for an act affronting the priestly office. In a late extension of Dt 22:21, the punishment of stoning for premarital intercourse of a young woman puts it on a par with adultery (cf. subsequent verses of Dt 22:23-24). Thus, it most likely does not represent the punishment actually applied, but is used for polemical purposes. Genesis 38:24, on the other hand, is probably a late halacha in which the accusation by the father-in-law explicitly refers linguistically to an intercourse with an alleged prostitute (vv.14-15). In the vast majority of cases the znh root was used in a figurative sense. One third of all Bible passages with this root occur in Ezk (mainly Ezk 16 and 23), and together with Hos they constitute half of all the passages where it occurs. It is most often a metaphor for cultic or religious infidelity, involving participation in illicit cults and the worship of other gods (Hos, Jer, Ezk, Trito-Isaiah, Pentateuch, Judg, 2Kgs, 1-2Ch, Ps 106), but also political conspiracy with foreign powers (Ezk 23), and ultimately all manner of iniquity and denial of God’s activity in the world (Ps 73). Also, cities are personified as prostitutes: Jerusalem, full of social iniquity (Is 1:21), the worn-out and unattractive prostitute Tyre (Is 23:15-16) trading with the whole world (Is 23:17), Nineveh using terrible violence against the nations (Na 3:17), and Samaria and Jerusalem consorting or playing political games with the powers of the time (Ezk 23). The root concerned is used metaphorically for the first time in Hos. In addition to the verb, there are several nouns based on this root: zenûnim, zenût and tazût (the last one only in Ezk), which, apart from zenûnim in Gn 38:24 are only used in a figurative sense (it is difficult to decide whether zenût in SirB 41:17; 42:8 is also an exception). Znh in hi. probably appears only in a figurative sense (Lv 19:29 is no exception) and has the causative meaning of “to encourage prostitution”, “to pimp”. Also in Hos 4:10.18; 5:3 the causative meaning best fits the context (which also applies to the TM lesson of Hos 5:3, although the verse is textually uncertain). There is therefore no reason to assume a non-causative meaning of hi. znh that is identical to q. The figurative meaning of the n)p root is incomparably less frequent. Again, it is most often a metaphor for cultic and religious infidelity to YHWH (only in Hos, Jer, Ezk, Trito-Is), and furthermore political betrayal, involving the assassination of the king by court elites (Hos 7:4), mutual deception and betrayal by intimately related individuals (Jer 9:2), the false, lying prophecy of success, which is nothing less than betrayal of the inhabitants of Jerusalem or the whole people (Jer 23:14, which in Jer 23:10 is extended to the cultic infidelity of the priests, prophets and with them the whole people). The metaphorical n)p, when this root does not refer to cultic and religious iniquity, highlights the aspect of betrayal by those with a special obligation towards the betrayed. The derivatives ne)upim and na)apûpim are used in a figurative sense only. Znh and n)p appear next to each other only in a figurative sense. Only in Jer (two or three times: 3:6-11; 13:25-27 and perhaps 5:7-9) are they directly adjacent to each other, referring to the same iniquity, although the beginning of this process is found in Hos 2,4 (see also the parallel juxtaposition of the two source domains in Hos 4:13-14, which in terms of imagery refer to different sexual offences). In such cases n)p appears because of the particular character of the statement: in connection with Israel’s punishment, which is metaphorical divorce (Jer 3:8a, and in the next verse znh and n)p illustrate Judah’s cultic infidelity) or capital punishment (Ezk 16:38 and 23:45), with marital infidelity (Hos 2:4-17; 3:1; then when sexual relations with multiple partners are mentioned znh returns; cf. also Jer 3:1; Ezk 23,44), to illustrate the strange situation when a prostitute does not take payment and behaves like an unfaithful wife (Ezk 16:32). The situation is most complicated in Ezk, because in Ezk 16* znh is a metaphor for cultic and religious infidelity to YHWH, and in Ezk 23* for political conspiracy with foreign powers. In the additions in Ezk 23 n)p describes cultic and religious infidelity to YHWH, and thus refers to the same iniquities as znh in Ezk 16. In any case, we are dealing with two, sometimes complementary metaphors and different source domains (vehicle/figure). Without taking this fact into account, it is impossible to interpret these passages correctly. The prophets and, following them, other authors of the Bible reached for metaphorical sexual freedom or prostitution to shock their audiences, to arouse disgust at iniquity, and above all at cultic and religious transgressions.