Hebrew word · H2183

זְנוּנִים

zenunim

fornication

An abstract noun in the plural, meaning 'promiscuity' or 'harlotry'. It comes from the root zānāh: to have sexual relations outside the proper bond, to be promiscuous, and also to work as a prostitute. The plural expresses a habit or character rather than counted acts.

Appears 12 times in 10 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

adultery, fornication, prostitution

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Hosea 2:2

Range of meaning

An abstract noun in the plural, meaning 'promiscuity' or 'harlotry'. It comes from the root zānāh: to have sexual relations outside the proper bond, to be promiscuous, and also to work as a prostitute. The plural expresses a habit or character rather than counted acts. In the prophets the root is often used for being unfaithful to God by worshipping other gods (Exod 34:15–16; Jer 3; Ezek 16, 23).

Against the English

KJV/YLT 'whoredoms', WEB 'prostitution', ESV 'whoring', BSB 'adultery' (BSB swaps the two nouns). 'Prostitution' suggests sex for money. The Hebrew range is wider: any sexual looseness, especially a woman's.

How it drifted

Modern English 'prostitution' is mainly a commercial and legal category. Zānāh covers promiscuity in general. Payment comes into it only sometimes (in Hosea it does appear in 2:12, 'wages', and 9:1).

Used elsewhere in the period

Hos 1:2 ('a wife of zenûnîm and children of zenûnîm'), 4:12 and 5:4 ('a spirit of zenûnîm'). Also Gen 38:24, 2 Kgs 9:22 (Jezebel's 'harlotries'), Ezek 23:11, 29. The Septuagint usually translates it with porneia, a word that also later broadened.

From the study of Hosea 5:4

Range of meaning

From the root znh, sexual relations outside a legitimate bond, especially a woman's unfaithfulness or promiscuity. The plural noun describes a pattern or way of life. It is used literally (Genesis 38:24, Tamar) and, very often, as a metaphor for Israel's worship of other gods (2 Kings 9:22; Ezekiel 23; Nahum 3:4).

Against the English

'Prostitution' and 'harlotry' suggest paid sex as a trade. 'Fornication' (the supplied lemma gloss) suggests sex before marriage. The Hebrew is wider than both. It covers the unfaithfulness of a married woman as much as professional prostitution. 'Whoredom' or 'promiscuity' is closer. Hosea's main frame is a wife betraying her husband.

How it drifted

English Bibles fixed on 'whoredom' and 'harlotry', words that have since faded into either archaic moralism or the narrow sense of the commercial sex trade. The covenant-marriage frame is lost when the word is heard as a vice in general.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hosea 1:2 ('a wife of zənûnîm and children of zənûnîm'); 2:4, 6 (Eng. 2:2, 4); 4:12 ('a spirit of zənûnîm has led them astray'). Phyllis Bird's study ('To Play the Harlot', 1989) showed how the metaphor works: Israel as YHWH's wife pursuing other lovers, namely Baal, fertility rites and foreign powers.

From the study of Hosea 1:2

Range of meaning

An abstract noun from the root znh. It covers sexual activity outside a legitimate bond: promiscuity, fornication, harlotry. It can include prostitution, but it is wider than prostitution. Like many Hebrew abstract nouns it appears in the plural, which suggests repeated acts or a settled pattern ('whorings'). In a phrase like 'woman of zənûnîm' or 'spirit of zənûnîm' it describes a disposition or character.

Against the English

KJV and ESV have 'whoredom(s)', NASB 'harlotry', BSB and NLT 'a prostitute', NIV 'a promiscuous woman'. 'Prostitute' narrows the word to a trade. Hebrew had a separate, ordinary word for a prostitute, zônâ (Gen 38:15; Josh 2:1), and Hosea does not use it for Gomer here.

How it drifted

Modern English 'whore' and 'harlot' are archaic or crude, so many modern versions reach for 'prostitute', the nearest polite word. The result implies a profession rather than a pattern of unfaithfulness.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word occurs about a dozen times. Gen 38:24: Tamar is 'pregnant by zənûnîm', meaning by illicit intercourse. 2 Kgs 9:22: Jezebel's 'zənûnîm and sorceries', a religious and political charge. Nah 3:4: Nineveh's 'many zənûnîm'. Ezek 23:11, 29. In Hosea: 1:2 (twice), 2:2, 2:4 (Hebrew 2:4, 6), and especially 4:12 and 5:4, 'a spirit of zənûnîm', an inner drive toward unfaithfulness. The Septuagint renders it porneia, the same broad word later used in the New Testament.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 38:24 לִזְנוּנִ֑ים to prostitution<s>

    About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

    Here: A plural noun for a kind of conduct, as "dealings" is in English: "by loose living." The le- shows what caused the pregnancy. It comes from the same root as the opening verb, so the charge repeats itself.

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 9:22 זְנוּנֵ֞י [the] prostitutions of

    When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

    Here: An abstract plural, "the whorings of". In Israel's prophetic and covenant language this is the standard picture for unfaithfulness to YHWH, chiefly the worship of other gods. Here it points to Jezebel's patronage of Baal and Asherah, not to any recorded sexual affair.

Ezekiel · 2

  1. Ezekiel 23:11 מִזְּנוּנֵ֖י more than [the] prostitutions of

    Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister.

    Here: A second noun from the same root (zanah, "be sexually unfaithful"), joined to the comparing "from": "more than the harlotries of...". This is the older word, familiar from Hosea (1:2; 2:4) and from the charge against Jezebel (2 Kgs 9:22).

  2. Ezekiel 23:29 זְנוּנַ֔יִךְ prostitutions your

    They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity

Hosea · 6

  1. Hosea 1:2 זְנוּנִים֙ זְנוּנִ֔ים prostitution<s>

    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.”

    Here: An abstract plural, 'promiscuities' or 'whorings'. A 'woman of zənûnîm' is a woman marked by sexual unfaithfulness. This is a description of character, not the ordinary word for a professional prostitute (zônâ).

  2. Hosea 2:2 זְנוּנֶ֙יהָ֙ prostitution<s> her

    Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

    Here: 'Her promiscuities': her habit of sexual looseness. Here it is a picture for chasing other gods (the Baals) as lovers. It is the same word as in 1:2, 'wife of promiscuity'.

  3. Hosea 2:4 זְנוּנִ֖ים prostitution<s>

    I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.

  4. Hosea 4:12 זְנוּנִים֙ prostitution<s>

    My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.

    Here: Plural noun meaning sexual unfaithfulness as a habit or character, 'promiscuity' rather than a single act. It is the same word as in Hosea 1:2 ('a wife of whoredom'), tying the nation's behaviour to the prophet's marriage.

  5. Hosea 5:4 זְנוּנִים֙ prostitution<s>

    Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD.

    Here: An abstract plural noun meaning promiscuity as a way of life. It recalls Hosea's own marriage to an unfaithful wife (1:2). Here it is mainly a picture of Israel going after other gods and foreign powers, though the literal sexual rites of the hill shrines (4:13–14) are part of what is meant.

Nahum · 2

  1. Nahum 3:4 זְנוּנֵ֣י בִּזְנוּנֶ֔יהָ [the] prostitution<s> of, by prostitution<s> her

    because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

    Here: A plural noun for prostitution as a habit and a way of life, not a single act. The plural stresses that it went on and on: countless dealings.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.