Contrary to the claims of some 20th-century scholarship, the Hebrew Bible never refers directly to cult prostitutes. Many modern Bible translations are simply misleading in this respect. In the ancient Near East, women could in fact be dedicated by their fathers or their masters to a deity. Women could also devote themselves to the service of a god or a goddess in order to secure their living. However, qedeshot in the Bible never appear as performing religious sexual rituals, which is the key attribute of a cult prostitute.
Women on duty at the entrance to Israelite sanctuaries are mentioned in Exodus and 1 Samuel , but their tasks are not described, and they are not called qedeshot.
The earliest Biblical attestation of qedeshah is found in the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis Judah then gave his second son Onan to Tamar.
Onan also died. Judah was reluctant to give his third son Shelah to Tamar, as was required when a brother died without children. Later, Judah himself was widowed.
He saw a woman on the road, assumed her to be a harlot zonah , and slept with her. He gave her his seal as assurance that he would pay her with a sheep from his flock Genesis โ The zonah turned out to be none other than his daughter-in-law Tamar, who had dressed herself in a veil and sat by the road because Judah had refused to give her his third son as a husband.
