Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 17:31:47 -0500 "Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>
writes:
> George:
> 
> The passage in 2 Kings 23.7 also refers to women weaving something 
> for the
> sacred groves.
> 
> What word is used there, and what does it mean?
> 
> Yours,
> Dora Smith
> Austin, Texas
> villandra AT austin.rr.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>
> To: <villandra AT austin.rr.com>
> Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 2:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] "Sodomite" in 2 Kings 23.7
> 
> 
> > On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 14:47:23 -0500 "Dora Smith" 
> <villandra AT austin.rr.com>
> > writes:
> > > What is meant by "sodomite" (or word translated thereas) in the
> > > following
> > > passage on Josiah's eviction of Baal from the LORDs temple in
> > > Jerusalem?
> > >
> > > "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 Kings 23.7).
> > >
> > > One thing it does not appear to mean is homosexuality.   It is 
> a
> > > place where
> > > women wore hangings for the grove - where Yahweh's wife Asherah 
> was
> > > worshipped.
> > >
> > > But it clearly also is not a reference to a failure to show
> > > hospitality to
> > > strangers, as appears to be the case in other Old Testmament
> > > references to
> > > the term sodomite.
> > >
> > > St. Paul seems to have thought that homosexuality was closely 
> tied
> > > to the
> > > practice of idolatry - is this a clue to what was actually going 
> on
> > > in the
> > > minds of the authors of Kings?
> > >
> > __________
> >
> > There is only one occurance of QD$ in the f. pl. in the OT -- Hos. 
> 4.14,
> > but this indicates that it did have a fem. form as well.  The text 
> here
> > is somewhat obscure in that )oR:GoWT $fM BfT.iYM doesn't seem to 
> make
> > much sense.  Of interest here is Is 59.5 where the verb )fRaG is 
> used in
> > the context W:QW.R"Y (aC.fByY$ Ye)e:RoGW. "they weave spider 
> webs."
> > which BDB understand as hatching intrigue.  Whether this passage 
> has any
> > relation to that usage is not immediately evident.  Generally, 
> though QD$
> > and QD$H are taken to be sacred prostitutes.  That other 
> activities would
> > occur in their domicile is not inconceivable.  Both the weaving 
> of
> > "houses" and the sacred prostitution would have been seen as 
> relating to
> > the cultus of foreign gods.
> >
> > george
> > gfsomsel

______________

The verb there is )oR:GoWT as indicated in my original reply to your
post.  It means "to weave" or "to use a loom" [ )eReG ].

george
gfsomsel