47 Bible Verses about Prostitution

And Judah saw her and reckoned her to [be] a prostitute, for she had covered her face. And he turned aside to her at the roadside and said, "Please come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she [was] his daughter-in-law. And she said, "What will you give to me that you may come in to me?"

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men from Acacia Grove [as] spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name [was] Rahab, and {spent the night} there.

For my people they cast lots, and {they traded} the male child for the prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine and they drank [it].

So he asked the men of her place, saying, "Where [is] that cult prostitute [that was] at Eynayim by the roadside?" And they said, "There is no cult prostitute here." Then he returned to Judah and said, "I could not find her. Morever, the men of the place said, 'There is no cult prostitute here.'"

{They die in their youth}, and their life [ends] among the male shrine prostitutes.

" 'You shall not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, {lest the land be prostituted and the land fill up with depravity}.

"No woman {of Israel} shall be a temple prostitute, and no man {of Israel} shall be a male shrine prostitute. You may not bring the {hire} of a prostitute or {the earnings of a male prostitute} [into] the house of Yahweh your God, for any vow offerings, because {both} are a detestable thing to Yahweh your God.

" 'They shall not {marry} a woman [who is] a prostitute and defiled, nor shall they {marry} a woman divorced from her husband, because each priest [is] holy for his God.

And {about three months later} it was told to Judah, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the whore, and now, behold, she has conceived by prostitution." And Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned."

" 'As for the daughter of any priest, if she is defiled by prostituting, she is disgracing her father--she shall be burned in the fire.

Asa did right in the eyes of Yahweh, like David his ancestor. He put away the male shrine prostitutes from the land, and he removed all of the idols that his ancestors made.

The remainder of the acts of Jehoshaphat, his powerful [deeds] he did, and how he fought, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? The remainder of the male shrine prostitutes who were left over in the days of Asa his father he exterminated from the land.

Then behold! A woman [comes] to meet him [with the] garment of a prostitute and {a secret heart}.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners,

There were also male shrine prostitutes in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh had driven out from before the {Israelites}.

Then two prostitutes came to the king, and they stood before him.

"{How} can I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me, and they have sworn by [those who are] not gods. But I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and flocked [to] the house of a prostitute.

On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice, and on the hills they make offerings, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and all your daughters-in-law commit adultery. {I will not punish your daughters} when they play the whore, or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; because they go aside with whores, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes, a people that does not understand comes to ruin.

In the house of Israel I have seen something horrible; Ephraim's unfaithfulness [is] there. Israel is defiled.

Then all her idols will be broken in pieces, and all her prostitution wages will be burned in the fire, and all her idols I will make a desolation, For from the wage of a prostitute she gathered [them], and to the wage of a prostitute they will return.

Do not desire her beauty in your heart; may she not capture you with her eyelashes. For [the] price of a woman, a prostitute, [is the] price of a loaf of bread, but the {woman belonging to a man} hunts precious life. Can a man carry fire in his lap, and his clothes not burn?

Samson went down to Gaza; there he saw a prostitute and {had sex with her}. The Gazites [were told], "Samson has come here," so they surrounded [the place] and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. They kept silent all night, saying, "[We will wait] until the morning light, and then we will kill him."

My child, may you give your heart to me, and may your eyes delight in my ways. For a deep pit is a prostitute, and a narrow well is {an adulteress}.

A man who loves wisdom will make his parents glad, but the friend of prostitutes will squander his wealth.

But when this son of yours returned--who has consumed your assets with prostitutes--you killed the fattened calf for him!'

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ [and] make [them] members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body [with her]? For it says, "The two will become one flesh."

Which of the two did the will of [his] father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God! For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did believe him. And [when] you saw [it], you did not even change your minds later [so as] to believe in him.

And behold, a woman in the town who was a sinner, [when she] learned that he was dining in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of perfumed oil, and standing behind [him] at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with [her] tears and was wiping [them] with the hair of her head and was kissing his feet and anointing [them] with the perfumed oil. Now [when] the Pharisee who invited him saw [this], he spoke to himself, saying, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman [this is] who is touching him, that she is a sinner."read more.
And Jesus answered [and] said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he said, "Teacher, say [it]." "There were two debtors [who owed] a certain creditor. One owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty. [When] they were not able to repay [him], he forgave [the debts] of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered [and] said, "I suppose that [it is the one] to whom he forgave more." And he said to him, "You have judged correctly." And turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered into your house. You did not give me water for [my] feet, but she wet my feet with [her] tears and wiped [them] with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but from the time I entered, she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with olive oil, but she anointed my feet with perfumed oil. {For this reason} I tell you, her sins--[which were] many--have been forgiven, for she loved much. But [the one] to whom little is forgiven loves little." And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." And those who were reclining at the table with [him] began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, nor thieves, nor greedy persons, not drunkards, not abusive persons, not swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And some of you were these [things], but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, [because she] welcomed the spies in peace.

And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works [when she] welcomed the messengers and sent [them] out by a different route?

Then Joshua said to the two men who spied on the land, "Go [to] the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, just as you swore to her." So the young men who were spies went and brought Rahab and her father and mother, her brothers, and all who were with her. And they brought all her family out and set them outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city and all that [was] in it with fire; they put only the silver and gold, and the items of copper and iron, [into] the treasury of the house of Yahweh.read more.
But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute {and her family} and all who [were] with her, and she has lived in the midst of Israel until this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who live on the earth became drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality." And he carried me away into the wilderness in the Spirit, and I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.read more.
And the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, holding a golden cup in her hand full of detestable things and the unclean things of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead a name [was] written, a mystery: "Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth."

And this will happen on that day: And Tyre [will] be forgotten seventy years, like the days of one king. At [the] end of seventy years, it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute: "Take a harp, go around [the] city, forgotten prostitute! Do [it] well, playing a stringed instrument! Make numerous songs, that you may be remembered." And this shall happen: at [the] end of seventy years, Yahweh will visit Tyre, and she will return to her harlot's wages, and she will commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

"Because of the many idolatries of [the] prostitute, the beautiful charm [of] a mistress of witchcraft, she who enslaves nations by her harlotries, and peoples by her sorceries,

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Look, you [are] about to lie [down] with your ancestors, and this people will arise and they will play the prostitute after {the foreign gods} of the land {to which they are going}.

lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute [themselves] after their gods, and they sacrifice to their gods, and they invite you, and you eat their sacrifice, and you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute [themselves] after their gods, and they cause your sons to prostitute [themselves] after their gods.

then I myself will set my face against that man and against his clan, and I will cut him off and all those from the midst of their people who prostitute after Molech.

But they did not listen to their leaders, but lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They turned away quickly from the way that their ancestors went, who had obeyed the commandment of Yahweh; they did not do [as their ancestors].

Gideon made an ephod [out of] it, and he put it in his town in Ophrah, and all Israel prostituted [themselves] to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

But they transgressed against the God of their ancestors and prostituted themselves after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.

And they became unclean by their works, and were unfaithful in their deeds.

How has a faithful city become like a whore? Full of justice, righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

And you took from your clothes and you made for yourself colorful shrines, and you prostituted on them; {this had not happened before}, and it {will not continue to happen}. And you took {your beautiful jewelry} [made] from my gold and from my silver that I had given to you, and you made for yourself {male images}, and you prostituted with them.

And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying}, "Son of man, there were two women, [the] daughters of one mother, and they prostituted [themselves] in Egypt in their childhood; they were prostituting [themselves] there, [and] their breasts were fondled, and there they caressed the bosoms of their virginity.read more.
Now [as for] their names, the older [was] Oholah, and Oholibah [was] her sister. And {they became mine}, and they bore sons and daughters, and their names [are] Samaria [for] Oholah, and Jerusalem [for] Oholibah And Oholah prostituted [herself] {while she was still mine}, and she lusted for her lovers, for Assyria [who was] nearby, clothed in blue cloth, governors and prefects, {handsome young men} [and] all of them horsemen, {experts on horseback}. And she bestowed her fornication on them, [on] the choice [ones] of the {Assyrians}, all of them, and with every one [after] which she lusted; with all of their idols she defiled herself. And her whorings from [the time of] Egypt she [did] not abandon, for they slept with her in her childhood, and they caressed the bosoms of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication on her. Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the {Assyrians} {after whom she lusted}. They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. And she became a name for the women, and they executed judgments against her. "And though Oholibah her sister saw, yet in her lust {she behaved more corruptly than her}, and her whoring [was] more than the prostitution of her sister. She lusted after the {Assyrians}, governors and prefects, warriors clothed in perfection, {expert horsemen}, all of them {handsome young men}. And I saw that she was defiled; {they had both taken the same path}! And she increased her whorings, and she saw men carved on the wall, images of Chaldeans carved in red belted with a belt at their waist with turbans on their heads, all of them [giving] [the] appearance of adjutants, the image of the {Babylonians}; Chaldea [was] the land of their birth. And she lusted for them {when her eyes saw them}, and she sent messengers to them [at] Chaldea. And so the {Babylonians} came to her [for the] bed of lovemaking; and they defiled her with their fornication, and she was defiled by them, and she turned from them. And she revealed her whorings, and she revealed her nakedness, and so I turned from her {just as} I turned from her sister. Yet she increased her whorings, {recalling} the days of her childhood when she was prostituted in the land of Egypt And she lusted after her male lovers whose genitalia [were the] genitalia of male donkeys and [their] seminal emission [was the] seminal emission of horses. And you longed [after] the obscene conduct of your youth when your bosom was caressed by Egypt, fondling your young breasts. "Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I [am] stirring up your lovers against you [concerning] whom you turned away, and I will bring them against you from all around: the {Babylonians} and all of the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all of the {Assyrians} [along] with them, {handsome young men}, governors and prefects, all of them adjutants {and excellent horsemen}. And they will come against you [with] an army chariot and wagon and with a crowd of peoples; they will set [themselves] against you [from] all around [with] large shield and small shield and helmet. And I will give {before them} judgment, and they will judge you with their judgments. And I will direct my zeal against you, and they will deal with you in anger; your nose and your ears they will remove, and {those who are left}, they will fall by the sword, and they will take your sons and your daughters, and {your remnant} will be consumed by fire. And they will strip you [of] your clothes, and they will take {your splendid jewelry}. And I will put an end to your obscene conduct [coming] from you and your fornication from the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them; and you will not remember Egypt again.' For thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Look! I [am] giving you into the hand of those you hated, into the hand of those from whom you turned away. And they will deal with you in hatred, and they will take all of your acquisitions, and they will leave you naked and [in] bareness; and the nakedness of your fornication and your obscene conduct and your whorings will be exposed. These [things] [are] accomplished against you since you prostituted yourself after the nations, [and] on account of that, you defiled yourself by their idols. You went in the [same] way of your sister, and I will give her cup into your hand." ' Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "You will drink the deep and wide cup of your sister; you will be as laughter and as scorn; {the cup holds so much}! You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, for a cup of horror and desolation [is] the cup of your sister, Samaria. And you will drink it, and you will drain [it], and its potsherds you will gnaw, and you will tear out your breasts, for {I myself} spoke," {declares} the Lord Yahweh. Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because you have forgotten me, and you threw me behind your back, now in turn you bear your obscene conduct and your whorings."

They will eat and not be satisfied; they will play the whore and not multiply, because they have forsaken Yahweh {to devote themselves to whoredom}. Wine and new wine {take away the understanding}. My people, consult {their wooden idols}, and their divining rod gives them oracles; because a spirit of whoredom led [them] astray, and they played the whore from under their God.

Their deeds do not permit them to return them to God. Because a spirit of whoredom [is] in their midst, they do not know Yahweh.