47 Bible Verses about Prostitution

Most Relevant Verses

Genesis 38:15-16

When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He turned to her by the way, and said, "Please come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?"

Joshua 2:1

Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, and Jericho." They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.

Joel 3:3

and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

Genesis 38:21-22

Then he asked the men of her place, saying, "Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?" They said, "There has been no prostitute here." He returned to Judah, and said, "I haven't found her; and also the men of the place said, 'There has been no prostitute here.'"

Job 36:14

They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.

Leviticus 19:29

"'Do not profane your daughter, to make her a prostitute; lest the land fall to prostitution, and the land become full of wickedness.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18

There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sacred male prostitute of the children of Israel. You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a dog, into the house of the LORD your God for any vow: for even both these are an abomination to the LORD your God.

Leviticus 21:7

"'They shall not marry a woman who is a prostitute, or profane; neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband: for he is holy to his God.

Genesis 38:24

It happened about three months later, that it was told Judah, saying, "Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the prostitute; and moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution." Judah said, "Bring her forth, and let her be burnt."

Leviticus 21:9

"'The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the prostitute, she profanes her father: she shall be burned with fire.

1 Kings 15:11-12

Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. And he banished the male temple prostitutes out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

1 Kings 22:45-46

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he showed, and how he warred, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? The remnant of the male temple prostitutes, that remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land.

Proverbs 7:10

Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

1 Kings 14:24

and there were also male shrine prostitutes in the land: they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD drove out before the children of Israel.

1 Kings 3:16

Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him.

Jeremiah 5:7

"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

Hosea 4:13-14

They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

Hosea 6:10

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There is prostitution in Ephraim. Israel is defiled.

Micah 1:7

All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return."

Proverbs 6:25-27

Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids. For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

Judges 16:1-2

Samson went to Gaza, and saw a prostitute there, and went in to her. The Gazites were told, "Samson is here." They surrounded him, and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and were quiet all night, saying, "Wait until morning light, then we will kill him."

Proverbs 23:26-27

My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways. For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

Luke 15:30

But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.'

1 Corinthians 6:15-16

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, "The two," says he, "will become one flesh."

Matthew 21:31-32

Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the Kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you did not even repent afterward, that you might believe him.

Luke 7:37-50

And suddenly, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment. Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner."read more.
Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." He said, "Teacher, say on." "A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?" Simon answered, "He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most." He said to him, "You have judged correctly." Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor men who have sexual relations with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

James 2:25

In like manner was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?

Joshua 6:22-25

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house, and bring out from there the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her." The young men who were spies went in, and brought out Rahab with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. They also brought out all her relatives, and they set them outside of the camp of Israel. They burnt the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only they put the silver, the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron into the treasury of the LORD's house.read more.
But Rahab the prostitute, her father's household, and all that she had, Joshua saved alive. She lived in the midst of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers, whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Revelation 17:1-5

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality." He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored animal, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.read more.
The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead a name was written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

Isaiah 23:15-17

It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute. Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered. It will happen after the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.

Nahum 3:4

because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.

Deuteronomy 31:16

The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

Exodus 34:15-16

Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

Leviticus 20:5

then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all who play the prostitute after him, to play the prostitute with Molech, from among their people.

Judges 2:17

Yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not do so.

Judges 8:27

Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel prostituted themselves after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.

1 Chronicles 5:25

They trespassed against the God of their fathers, and prostituted themselves after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them.

Psalm 106:39

Thus were they defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds.

Isaiah 1:21

How the faithful city has become a prostitute. She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

Ezekiel 16:16-17

You took of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and played the prostitute with them;

Ezekiel 23:1-35

The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.read more.
Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah. "Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither has she left her prostitution since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her. Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted. These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her. "Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister. She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way. She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. So she uncovered her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt. She doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth. "Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: 'Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, all of them governors and officials, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. They shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet all around; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels. Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution brought from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more. "'For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated; and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution. These things shall be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols. You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.' "Thus says the Lord GOD: 'You will drink of your sister's cup, which is deep and large; you will be ridiculed and held in derision; it contains much. You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria. You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it, and shall tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,' says the Lord GOD. "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.'"

Hosea 4:10-12

They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to the LORD. Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

Hosea 5:4

Their deeds won't allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD.

From Thematic Bible


Prostitution » Forbidden

Leviticus 19:29

"'Do not profane your daughter, to make her a prostitute; lest the land fall to prostitution, and the land become full of wickedness.

Deuteronomy 23:17

There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sacred male prostitute of the children of Israel.

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Theasaurus: Prostitution