Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where [is] the harlot, that [was] openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this [place].
Ver. 21. Where is the harlot?] The holy whore, as the Hebrew word importeth; such as committed that filthiness, under a pretence of holiness. Such, among the heathens, were the lewd worshippers of Priapus (this is thought to be Baalpeor); and Venus at Cyprus; where the maids, in honour of their goddess, prostituted their chastity to all that would, once a year. So in their Lupercals and Bacchanals at Rome, in quibus discurrebatur ad publicos concubitus, for like reason. Of such unclean persons, even by God's house, we read in 2 Kings 23:7, and of such as "sacrificed with harlots" in Hosea 4:14, who brought their hire for a vow; called therefore, the price of a salt bitch (dog). Deu 23:17-18 Vah propudium!