StrongerBible

etnan

אֶתְנַן

HebrewH0868“hire, wages, ...”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 23:18(19)Isa 23:17Isa 23:18Ezk 16:31Ezk 16:34 (2×)Ezk 16:41Hos 9:1Mic 1:7 (3×)
Root family
Word studyet-NAHNnoun

What etnan means

the fee paid for a prostitute's services, and so any gain a people or city is accused of earning by selling itself

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This word names one specific kind of money: what changes hands when someone is paid for sex. Hebrew already had ordinary words for a worker's pay (שָׂכָר) and a thing's price (מְחִיר); this one carries the transaction inside it. A few uses spell it out as "the fee of a prostitute," but more often the word stands alone, because a Hebrew reader did not need the explanation.

The prophets seized on that. Once a nation's unfaithfulness to God could be pictured as prostitution, whatever the nation gained could be named its fee:

  • Israel loved "a prostitute's fee on every threshing floor," meaning the grain harvest it credited to another god (Hosea 9:1)
  • Samaria's images were gathered from such a fee and will go back to being one when they burn (Micah 1:7)
  • Tyre's trade with every kingdom on earth is her fee, since she peddles herself to all comers (Isaiah 23:17)

Ezekiel runs the picture in reverse, and that reversal is his whole point. Jerusalem does not collect a fee; she pays one, showering gifts on her lovers to buy their attention. She is not even a competent prostitute, the accusation runs, because a prostitute at least gets paid.

One law sits behind all of this. Money earned this way could not be brought into God's house to settle a vow, however good the vow (Deuteronomy 23:18). The point is not only that such money is shameful but that it is unfit to touch holy things. Isaiah's oracle ends by overturning even that: Tyre's takings will one day be set apart for the LORD and go to feed those who serve him.

Nuances

1athe payment made for a prostitute's services
Deu 23:18(19)Ezk 16:31Ezk 16:34 (2×)Ezk 16:41
1bgoods, harvest, or profit called a prostitute's fee, because the people or city that gained them is pictured as selling itself
Isa 23:17Isa 23:18Hos 9:1Mic 1:7 (3×)

What scholars say about etnan

The standard lexicons agree on the sense: BDB, HALOT, and DCH gloss the noun as the hire or fee of a prostitute. Its derivation is less certain; it is usually connected with the root meaning to give, and the feminine form in Hosea 2:12 is commonly treated as a byform or a textual variant of it. The interpretive weight of the word falls not on its meaning but on the social reality behind Deuteronomy 23:18 and the prophetic uses. An older consensus represented by Albright read these texts against an institution of sacred prostitution attached to Canaanite and Israelite sanctuaries. That reconstruction has been dismantled in a series of studies by Oden, Westenholz, Bird, and Budin, who argue that the evidence for such an institution rests on Herodotus and later polemic rather than on Near Eastern sources. Van der Toorn proposed a mediating reading of the Deuteronomy law: women under economic pressure paid vows out of ordinary prostitution earnings, and the law forbids bringing that money to the sanctuary. Commentators on the prophets, including Wolff on Hosea and Hillers on Micah, treat the prophetic uses as metaphor extended from ordinary prostitution rather than as description of a cultic institution.

Where scholars disagree about etnan

Whether the law of Deuteronomy 23:18 and the prophetic uses of this word presuppose an institution of sacred or cultic prostitution attached to sanctuaries, or ordinary prostitution whose earnings were being brought as vow payments.

  • majorityThere was no institution of sacred prostitution in Israel or among its neighbors. The texts concern ordinary prostitution, and the prophetic language is metaphorical accusation of religious infidelity.; Robert A. Oden Jr., The Bible Without Theology (Harper & Row, 1987); Joan Goodnick Westenholz, "Tamar, Qedesa, Qadistu, and Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia," Harvard Theological Review 82 (1989): 245-265; Phyllis A. Bird, "'To Play the Harlot': An Inquiry into an Old Testament Metaphor," in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, ed. Peggy L. Day (Fortress, 1989); Stephanie L. Budin, The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
  • minorityThe texts reflect a real practice of cultic prostitution at Canaanite and Israelite sanctuaries, in which fees paid for sex functioned as offerings.; W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1942)
  • minorityThe Deuteronomy law addresses ordinary prostitution used to fund vow payments by women under economic pressure, with no cultic sexual institution behind it.; Karel van der Toorn, "Female Prostitution in Payment of Vows in Ancient Israel," Journal of Biblical Literature 108 (1989): 193-205

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. אֶתְנַןlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. אֶתְנַןlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. אֶתְנַןlexicon
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1996), on 23:18-19commentary
  • Hans Walter Wolff, Hosea, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1974), on 9:1commentary
  • Delbert R. Hillers, Micah, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1984), on 1:7commentary
  • Karel van der Toorn, "Female Prostitution in Payment of Vows in Ancient Israel," Journal of Biblical Literature 108 (1989): 193-205article
  • Phyllis A. Bird, "'To Play the Harlot': An Inquiry into an Old Testament Metaphor," in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, ed. Peggy L. Day (Fortress, 1989)article
  • Joan Goodnick Westenholz, "Tamar, Qedesa, Qadistu, and Sacred Prostitution in Mesopotamia," Harvard Theological Review 82 (1989): 245-265article
  • Robert A. Oden Jr., The Bible Without Theology: The Theological Tradition and Alternatives to It (Harper & Row, 1987)monograph
  • Stephanie L. Budin, The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2008)monograph
  • W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1942)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אֶתְנַן

m s absolute

אֶתְנָן, אֶתְנַן

Ezk 16:31, Ezk 16:34, Hos 9:1, Ezk 16:34, Ezk 16:41

m s construct

אֶתְנַן

Deu 23:18, Mic 1:7, Mic 1:7

m s construct

אֶתְנַנָּה, אֶתְנַנָּהּ

Isa 23:17, Isa 23:18

m p construct

אֶתְנַנֶּיהָ

Mic 1:7