prostitute

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The Greek, Latin, and Hebrew that is typically translated as “prostitute” in English (in some, mostly earlier translation also as “harlot” or “whore”) is translated in the 2024 revision of the inter-confessional Latvian Jauna Pārstrādāta latviešu Bībele as netikle or “hussy.” This replaced the previous translation mauka or “whore.” Nikita Andrejevs, editor of the Bible explains the previous and current translations: “The translators at the time felt that this strong word best described the thought contained in the main text. Many had objections, as it seemed that this word would not be the most appropriate for public reading in church.” (Source: Updated Bible published in Latvia ).

Other translations include:

  • Bariai: “a woman of the road” (source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “a woman who sells her body” (source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Uma: “a woman whose behavior is not appropriate” or “a loose woman” (source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “a bad woman” (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “a woman who make money through their reputation” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “a woman who makes money with her body” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “a woman whose womanhood is repeatedly-bought” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)

See also Translation commentary on Genesis 34:31, Rahab, and prostitute oneself / play the prostitute.

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Prostitution in the Bible .

complete verse (Ezekiel 23:44)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 23:44:

  • Kupsabiny: “Those men repeatedly came to the prostitutes Oholah and Oholibah.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Indeed that-was what they did. They laid-down-beside/(have-sexual-relations-with) Ohola and Oholiba, the two dirty/rude women who sell their body.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “So they had sex with those two women, Oholah and Oholibah, like men have sex with prostitutes.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 23:44

For they have gone in to her, as men go in to a harlot: For (literally “And”) renders the Hebrew waw conjunction. Here it is better rendered “But” (New American Standard Bible) or “Yet” (New Jerusalem Bible) to show the contrast between the sisters being so exhausted and yet still continuing to have sex with the men. They have gone in to her, as men go in to a harlot means that the men continued to have sex with the sisters as if they were prostitutes. Some translations understand this reference to prostitutes to imply that they had sex very many times (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New Century Version), but it does not necessarily have that sense. This sentence may be rendered “But the men continued to have sex with them as they do with a prostitute.”

Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah to commit lewdness: This sentence is a summary statement stressing the sexual immorality of Oholah and Oholibah. As elsewhere, the Hebrew expression for went in to means “had sex with.” Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint by saying to commit lewdness. Most other translations retain the Hebrew, which has “the women of lewdness”; for example, Good News Translation has “those immoral women,” Contemporary English Version says “the two sinful sisters,” and Osty translates “those lost women.” For lewdness see verse 21. Parole de Vie renders this sentence clearly, saying “Like going to the house of prostitutes, the men went to the place of Oholah and Oholibah, those women who sleep with just anybody!”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .