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DO
NOT PROSTITUTE THY DAUGHTER
By Roger Norman
"Do not prostitute (profane, New American Standard) thy daughter, to cause her to be
a harlot; lest the land fall to harlotry, and the land become full of wickedness." Lev. 19:29 KJV
Yesterday, I visited with a couple who are having marital problems. The wife told me that the husband has moved
out, has been living in an apartment for four months, and the daughters (ages 10 & 6) are crying themselves
to sleep each night. They are very hurt by it. Then, I thought about Jodi, whose parents divorced, leaving her
and her sister without the love and care of a dad.
QUESTION: When a young girl is deprived of this love and daily presence of her dad, could it leave such an empty
void in her that she becomes prone to jump at the first opportunity for male love which comes her way? Could this
early depriving of male love, this causing of grief, lead a young girl to whoredom/harlotry/impurity?
"Do not prostitute/profane (Strong's No. 2490) thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore/harlot; ..."
The Hebrew word for prostitute, #2490, is Khaw-lal, a primary root [compare 2470]; probably meaning:
(1) to bore,
(2) i.e., (by implication) to wound,
(3) to dissolve,
(4) fig. to profane (a person, place or thing),
(5) to break (one's word),
(6) to begin (as if by an "opening wedge"), and
(7) demonstrative (from 2485) to play (the flute).
Do these seven definitions describe what a dad does to a daughter when he fails to live in the home and fails to
give her "daily bread" of male attention and love? When a dad leaves young daughters, he is certainly
wounding them (No. 2 above). The word (2490) is compared to 2470, Khmo-law', meaning cause grief, make sick.
He is dissolving (No. 3 above) the father-daughter relationship which Yahweh had planned to use to raise up a godly
seed, Mal. 2:15. When the godly seed is not raised up, this will in turn cause the land to fall to whoredom and
the land to become full of wickedness (Lev. 19:29). This dissolving [and disregarding of Mal. 2:15] is also profaning
her (No. 4 above), because profaning is defined (American Heritage Dictionary) as showing contempt or irreverence
toward [Yah] or sacred things. His daughter was a sacred thing, I Cor. 7:14, Mal. 2:15. He, the dad, is showing
contempt toward that which Yah had entrusted to him!
He is breaking his word (No. 5 above) to the mother/wife, "...until death do us part." He is breaking
his vow before Yah (Ecc. 5:1-6), and he is breaking his word to be a father - a real father - to his daughters.
Father is Strong's #1, AB, $!. It is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as a male parent. Parent is
defined as ... (4) a guardian; protector. And, of course, Yahweh, our heavenly Father, is the ultimate picture
of a guardian/protector. The father who abandons (via divorce or separation) his daughters is removing this guard
and protection over his daughters - guardianship, protection and covering, sought and planned by Yah, Mal. 2:16.
He is breaking his implied word to be her guardian and protector. This leaves daughters vulnerable to, and unprotected
from, Satan and his evils.
These actions/consequences are the beginning of disaster, the opening wedge (No. 6 above), the initial bore hole
(No. 1 above) in the dam which can lead to, and cause breaking of the dam - acts of whoredom by his daughters.
And, the land will be ruined - washed away.
And, what do fathers usually do after they leave their daughters? They play! (No. 7 above) - with a new girl friend
- with new shiny red cars - with things - with irresponsibility!
What is a harlot really looking for - deep within her heart? For the love which she never received as a child.
The American Heritage Dictionary says the word whore derives from a base word Ka, which means love and desire.
A young girl, when hurt by the loss of daily attention and love of a dad, can either turn to the ultimate Father
- Father Yahweh - or she can turn to false "fathers" and lovers who are interested only in themselves,
in pleasing their desires of their flesh by use of her flesh. Yes, fathers have a grave responsibility towards
their daughters.
If fathers are not faithful in this responsibility, they face a grave consequence. Yah has entrusted daughters
to fathers, as a steward - to be in charge of Yah's servants (Ex. 21:1-11 and Luke 12:42). He, the dad, is to
give them - the maid servants - their "rations" of love, guardianship and protection at the proper times
(especially in their young, formative years). Blessed will be that steward (that dad) whom his master finds so
doing when He, The Master, comes, Luke 12:43. But, if that steward loses sight of his stewardship and the accounting
due the Judge of all the earth (Gen. 18:25), and begins to beat the slaves (maid servants entrusted to him) with
hurt, wounds, and breaking of his word of protection and care for them, and to eat and drink and get drunk (he
does not even realize what he is doing), then his Master himself will come on an unexpected day, cut him to pieces,
and assign him a place with the unbelievers! Luke 12:42-46.
Yes, fathers can cause and make their daughters to become harlots.
The Hebrew word for whore (harlot) is #2181, zaw-naw. It means fed, wanton, to commit adultery, fig. to commit
idolatry. A young girl is to look to her dad, and then to her husband, for love, guardianship and protection.
And, Yah uses fathers (Ex. 21:7-11) and husbands (Eph. 5:22-33) to work in their lives (I Cor. 7:14). But, when
this daughter-dad/husband-wife relationship fails, and when a woman is abandoned to look to others for love, guardianship
and protection, then she is looking away from Yahweh and looking to idols - other guardians, protectors, lovers
- i.e., to idolatry.
This verse (Lev. 19:29) appears right between two interesting verses:
"You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo [print, KJV] any marks upon you.
I am Yahweh." 19:28
and
"You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am Yahweh, your Elohim." 19:30
QUESTION: Why did Yah place these three verses together? Does the prohibition against profaning our daughters
have anything to do with tattoo marks and keeping of Sabbath?
In 19:28, Yah states that He does not want any junk cut into or tattooed onto His people in whom He dwells (I Cor.
6:19). He is to tabernacle in and among His people. They are His sanctuary. In 19:30, He states that we are
to reverence His sanctuary (implication - the Sabbath in which He dwells, Gen. 2:3). Then, right between these
two sanctuary precepts is Lev. 19:29 - do not prostitute/profane your daughter by causing her to become a harlot.
The word profane is shown in the American Heritage Dictionary as deriving from the Latin profanus, "before
- (i.e., outside) the temple." Pro (before) + fanum (temple), hence, not sacred. The temple/tabernacle is/was
Yah's sanctuary. Anything outside of it was/is profane, i.e., not sacred.
"Again, they have done this to Me; they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and have profaned my Sabbaths.
For when they have slaughtered their children [daughters] for their idols [idols of play, pleasure, irresponsibility
- everything a father bows down to when he leaves his daughters], they entered my sanctuary [the daughters in whom
I had dwelled] on the same day to profane it [the daughters]; and lo, thus they did within my house." Ezekiel
23:38-39.
When a father fails to give love and care to a daughter, especially when he abandons her, he is spiritually slaughtering
his daughter. She, in turn, is abandoned to Satan and his evils to draw her into harlotry and impurity where she
seeks the love and daily attention which her dad failed to provide. When her "tabernacle"/body in turn
becomes polluted/prostituted, then her person/body/tabernacle is profaned - Yah does not dwell there. She is outside,
away from, Yah. He, Yahweh, is gone from her life.
Yes, the three verses of Lev. 19:28, 29 and 30 are related.
And, mothers, what is your responsibility in all of this? So often mothers/wives whose husbands have left them
are quick to accuse their "ex" of adultery, sexual abuse of the children, irresponsibility, and abandonment.
But, let's ask ourselves: do we reap what we sow? Do we harvest what we plant? When our ways please Yahweh,
He makes even our enemies to be at peace with us. If He can make our enemies to be at peace with us when our ways
please Him, then surely He can make our husbands - of whom we once vowed to love and cherish, for better or for
worse, until death do us part - to be at peace with us.
Yes, wives/mothers have a grave responsibility in this matter of not prostituting their daughters. If a wife "runs
off" her husband, via her actions which are unforgiving and unacceptable to Yahweh, she is depriving her daughters
of that fatherly love and attention for which they were designed. And, lest the wife conclude that "the bum
needs to be run off anyway" because he is failing to act like a proper husband and father, she should remember
the admonition of Yahweh:
In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the
word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful
behavior. I Peter 3:1-2.
Roger Norman, Fort Worth, Texas. (817) 923-0648
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