Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? - Our translators often render different Hebrew words by the same term in English, and thus many important shades of meaning, which involve traits of character, are lost. In Genesis 38:15, Tamar is called a harlot, zonah , which, as we have already seen, signifies a person who prostitutes herself for money. In this verse she is called a harlot in our version; but the original is not but kedeshah , a holy or consecrated person, from kadash , to make holy, or to consecrate to religious purposes. And the word here must necessarily signify a person consecrated by prostitution to the worship of some impure goddess.
The public prostitutes in the temple of Venus are called ̔ , holy or consecrated female servants, by Strabo; and it appears from the words zonah and kedeshah above, that impure rites and public prostitution prevailed in the worship of the Canaanites in the time of Judah. And among these people we have much reason to believe that Astarte and Asteroth occupied the same place in their theology as Venus did among the Greeks and Romans, and were worshipped with the same impure rites.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Genesis 38:21:
Leviticus 17:7
Deuteronomy 23:17
Ruth 4:22
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