zanah

Whether זנה is a single word or two unrelated words spelled the same: one meaning to be a prostitute or unfaithful, and a second meaning to be angry or to feel repugnance (invoked to explain a few difficult verses such as Judges 19:2, where an early Greek text reads she was angry with him).

• majorityOne word with a single sexual core that the prophets extended into a metaphor for unfaithfulness.; BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. זנה; S. Erlandsson, "זנה," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 4:99-104
• minorityTwo unrelated words spelled alike: one for prostitution, a second for anger or repugnance with an Akkadian cognate.; HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. זנה I and II; Gesenius, Hebraisches und Aramaisches Handworterbuch, 18th ed. (Meyer/Donner, 2013), s.v. זנה

Whether the prophets' charge that Israel played the harlot after other gods reflects a real institution of sacred or cultic prostitution in Canaanite and Israelite religion, or is a purely rhetorical metaphor for covenant betrayal.

• majorityThere was no such sex cult; the language is a deliberately shocking metaphor built on the social shame of prostitution, and the older reconstruction rests on misread ancient sources.; Phyllis Bird, "'To Play the Harlot': An Inquiry into an Old Testament Metaphor," in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel (Fortress, 1989); Stephanie Budin, The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 2008); Christine Stark, "Kultprostitution" im Alten Testament? (OBO 221, 2006)
• minoritySome form of cultic sexual practice did exist in the wider ancient world and lies behind at least part of the prophetic critique.; John Day, "Does the Old Testament Refer to Sacred Prostitution and Did It Actually Exist in Ancient Israel?" (2004); Edward Lipinski, "Cult Prostitution in Ancient Israel?" Biblical Archaeology Review (2014)