2-Kings - 23:7



7 He broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of 2-Kings 23:7.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
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.
And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of Jehovah, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.
He destroyed also the pavilions of the effeminate, which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women wove as it were little dwellings for the grove.
And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were in the house of Jehovah, where the women wove tents for the Asherah.
And he broke down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
And he breaketh down the houses of the whoremongers that are in the house of Jehovah, where the women are weaving houses for the shrine.
And he had the houses pulled down of those who were used for sex purposes in the house of the Lord, where women were making robes for the Asherah.
And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah.
He broke down the living quarters of the temple prostitutes, that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah.
Also, he destroyed the small places of the effeminate, which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women were weaving something like little houses in the sacred grove.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

By the house of the Lord - This did not arise from intentional desecration, but from the fact that the practices in question were a part of the idolatrous ceremonial, being regarded as pleasing to the gods, and, indeed, as positive acts of worship (compare the marginal reference).
The "women" were probably the priestesses attached to the worship of Astarte, which was intimately connected with that of the Asherah or "grove." Among their occupations one was the weaving of coverings (literally "houses" margin) for the Asherah, which seem to have been of various colors (marginal reference).

The houses of the sodomites - We have already often met with these קדשים kedeshim or consecrated persons. The word implies all kinds of prostitutes, as well as abusers of themselves with mankind.
Wove hangings for the grove - For Asherah; curtains or tent coverings for the places where the rites of the impure goddess were performed. See at the end of 2-Kings 21:26 (note).

And he brake down the houses of the Sodomites that were by the house of the Lord,.... Near the temple were apartments, in which men, the worshippers of idols, prostituted their bodies to each other; committing that unnatural sin with one another, which has its name from Sodom, and from which those are so called, and which sin they committed in honour of the idols they worshipped; to such vile affections were they, in a judicial manner, delivered up, because of their idolatry; see Romans 1:27 the word signifies "Holy Ones", they being called so by an antiphrasis; though Abarbinel thinks these were the idolatrous priests, whom the worshippers of idols reckoned "holy", and so built houses for them near the temple to lodge in; the Targum is,"and broke down the houses of things consecrated to idols,''where they were put; and Theodoret on the place observes, that by an homonymy, they called the demons or idols themselves "Holy Ones"; and it is not likely, indeed, that the Sodomites should be
where the women wove hangings for the grove; that is, for Astarte, as the same writer observes: or "curtains", as the Jewish writers generally interpret it, in which either the idol was enclosed, or these made apartments for the idolaters to commit their abominable wickedness privately; though the Syriac and Arabic versions are,"they wove garments for the idols that were there;''and so the Septuagint version, of the Complutensian edition; that is, they wove garments for the goddess Astarte, which they dressed her with: the word signifies "houses", and may mean the shrines of the idol made of woven work.

brake down the houses of the sodomites--not solid houses, but tents, called elsewhere [2-Kings 17:30] Succoth-benoth, "the booths of the young women," who were devoted to the service of Asherah, for which they made embroidered hangings, and in which they gave themselves to unbridled revelry and lust. Or the hangings might be for Asherah itself, as it is a popular superstition in the East to hang pieces of cloth on trees.

הקּדשׁים בּתּי, the houses (places of abode) of the paramours (for הקדשים see at 1-Kings 14:24), were probably only tents or huts, which were erected in the court of the temple for the paramours to dwell in, and in which there were also women who wove tent-temples (בּתּים) for Asherah (see at 2-Kings 17:30).
(Note: On this worship Movers has the following among other remarks (Phn. i. p. 686): "The mutilated Gallus (קדש) fancies that he is a woman: negant se viros esse muleires se volunt credi (Firmic.). He lives in close intimacy with the women, and they again are drawn towards the Galli by peculiar affection." He also expresses a conjecture "that the women of Jerusalem gave themselves up in honour of the goddess in the tents of the Galli which were pitched in the temple circle, on which account the כלב מחיר went to the temple treasury.")

Sodomites - Sodomy was a part of idol - worship, being done to the honour of some of their idols, and by the appointment of those impure and diabolical spirits, which were worshipped in their idols. Hangings - Or, curtains, either to draw before the idols which were worshipped in the grove, to preserve them from defilement, or to gain more reverence for them: Or, garments for the service of the grove, for the idols or the priests belonging to them. Hebrews. houses, that is, either little chappels made of woven work, like those which were made of silver, Acts 19:24, within which there were some representations of their grove - idols: or rather, tents made of those curtains for the use above - mentioned.

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