To commit adultery (usually of the female, and less often of simple fornication, rarely of involuntary ravishment); figuratively, to commit idolatry (the Jewish people being regarded as the spouse of Jehovah)
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The Hebrew verb זָנָה (zanah) describes prostitution or illicit sexual conduct in some passages and becomes a prophetic image for covenant unfaithfulness through idolatry in others. Context must decide which use is primary.
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Full entry for זָנָה (H2181) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb זָנָה (zanah) describes prostitution or illicit sexual conduct in some passages and becomes a prophetic image for covenant unfaithfulness through idolatry in others. Context must decide which use is primary.
The BSB source-word alignment has 94 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (5), a prostitute (3), of a prostitute (3), and prostituted themselves (2), as a prostitute (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 34:31. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (22), Hosea (14), Leviticus (9), Jeremiah (6).
The Hebrew verb זָנָה (zanah) describes prostitution or illicit sexual conduct in some passages and becomes a prophetic image for covenant unfaithfulness through idolatry in others. Context must decide which use is primary. Numbers 25:1 names the Israelite men’s sexual conduct with Moabite women before the narrative describes sacrificial meals and allegiance to Baal of Peor. Exodus 34:15, Deuteronomy 31:16, and Judges 2:17 use the verb for turning from the Lord toward other gods. The sexual and covenant registers can meet in the same narrative movement, but they should not be treated as identical in every occurrence.
The prophetic metaphor addresses the covenant community as a whole. Hosea 1:2 says that the land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the Lord. The sign enacted through Hosea’s marriage serves that charge; the passage does not authorize readers to speculate beyond the text about a woman’s history or to prescribe Hosea’s calling for ordinary marriages. Ezekiel 16 addresses Jerusalem through an extended and severe marriage allegory. Its force is corporate covenant betrayal, not permission to direct degrading language toward women, survivors of abuse, or people seeking pastoral care.
Hosea 4:14 is especially important for responsible application. The Lord refuses a selective punishment of daughters and daughters-in-law because the men themselves seek prostitutes and participate in shrine practices. The verse exposes male complicity and a community’s double standard. Teachers must not make women carry the moral blame for sexual exploitation, mutual sin, or institutional corruption. Nor should the prophetic metaphor be used to shame a person whose sexual history includes coercion, trafficking, or abuse. Scripture’s condemnation of covenant betrayal never turns victimization into guilt.
The verb therefore opens sober teaching about exclusive loyalty to the Lord, the bodily seriousness of sexual conduct, and the danger of idolatry. It also requires disciplined pastoral speech. Literal conduct, commercial exploitation, consensual immorality, coercion, and corporate metaphor are not interchangeable categories. Agency, power, covenant setting, and the passage’s own evaluation must remain visible. A faithful word study tells the truth about sin while refusing selective blame, misogyny, sensationalism, or the misuse of prophetic rhetoric.
H2181 can name prostitution or illicit sexual conduct and can portray idolatry as covenant unfaithfulness. The passage must establish the active register, the agents involved, and whether literal conduct and prophetic metaphor intersect.
Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.
The covenant warning joins idolatrous allegiance, sacrifice, shared meals, and the danger of Israel’s participation.
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,
The verse identifies Israelite men as participants before the narrative connects their conduct with Baal worship.
And the Lord said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.
The Lord interprets future idolatry as forsaking Him and breaking the covenant given to Israel.
Israel, however, did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the Lord’s commandments; they did not do as their fathers had done.
Judges defines the metaphor through worship of other gods and departure from the Lord’s commands.
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the Lord.”
Hosea’s marriage becomes a prophetic sign because the land has departed from the Lord.
I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.
The Lord exposes the men’s participation and rejects a community’s selective assignment of blame to women.
But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking.
The extended allegory addresses Jerusalem’s misuse of covenant gifts and alliances through severe marital imagery.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Metaphor of covenant betrayal: Israel's idolatry portrayed as marital unfaithfulness to Yahweh.
Metaphor of covenant betrayal: Israel's idolatry portrayed as marital unfaithfulness to Yahweh.
to commit adultery (usually of the female, and less often of simple fornication, rarely of involuntary ravishment); figuratively, to commit idolatry (the Jewish people being regarded as the spouse of Jehovah) BDB: commit fornication Usage: (cause to) commit fornication, × continually, × great, (be an, play the) harlot, (cause to be, play the) whore, (commit, fall to) whoredom, (cause to) go a-whoring, whorish.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 93 lexical occurrence verses.
זָנָה is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Primary metaphor for covenant infidelity.Hosea 9:1-6
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Zanah gives Scripture a severe vocabulary for loyalties that violate a covenant bond, but its severity must remain under the passage’s control. Numbers 25 identifies Israelite men as actors while the narrative moves from sexual conduct to idolatrous worship. Deuteronomy and Judges use the verb for Israel’s departure from the Lord. Hosea turns a marriage into a prophetic sign of the land’s betrayal, and Ezekiel addresses Jerusalem through an extended allegory.
Hosea 4 then prevents selective blame by exposing the men who participate in the same corrupt system. The word can confront sexual immorality and idolatry without making women the symbolic source of communal sin. It cannot be used to shame victims, excuse exploiters, prescribe Hosea’s calling for troubled marriages, or collapse every sexual circumstance into one moral category.
Truthful teaching must name sin, agency, coercion, covenant, and mercy with equal care.
Hos.4.14
H2181 is a Hebrew verb whose subject, object, prepositions, verbal stem, and worship setting distinguish literal sexual conduct, causing or facilitating prostitution, and figurative covenant unfaithfulness. The English renderings can carry stigma, so agency must be read from the Hebrew clause and narrative.
The Greek translation tradition often uses the porneia word family for this Hebrew field, and the New Testament applies sexual and prostitution imagery in moral exhortation and in Revelation’s portrayal of corrupt Babylon. Those passages inherit prophetic patterns, but each must govern its own agents, claims, and pastoral application.