Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dear Lascelles:

My first reaction was that the work KLB doesn’t appear in Deuteronomy 23:18, but then I found a version that shows that the numbers in English lag the Hebrew listing by a verse. It’s in verse 19.

But the word MXYR doesn’t mean “price”, rather it means a payment for goods or services. It’s used, for example, for the payment that David gave to purchase the site of the future temple.

As for its meaning, context gives us a clue: the preceding refers to temple prostitution, both male and female. The syntactical structure indicates that this is the use of a dog as payment to the temple.

Why would God have enjoined that practice? Is it a reference to a specific pagan practice that has since been forgotten, just as not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk was revealed by Ugaratic texts as a way to petition the gods for rain and not as a basis for the milchig und fleischig teachings? Does anyone know of any historical reference to such a practice being used among pagans in ancient times?

Watch out for “most agree” as that can be a sign that they’re wrong. What you need is a historical and/or linguistic reference, and, as far as I know, they have none.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 2:56 PM, lascelles James <lasgbjames AT gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for helping me towards a better approach to understanding the word "Abraham"

Is the "price of a dog" to be taken literally in Deut 23:18? 

Most agree that the word keleb may signify a promiscuous person and that the _expression_ the "price of a dog" means "the wages of male prostitution" (TWOT Lexicon).

However, is there an etymon that can help support this interpretation?

Lascelles James