There are two kinds of harlotry in the Tanach, that of Rahab and Tamar, and that of Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, wife of Hosea.

Rahab was probably forced into harlotry as the only way to support her family, and married as soon as the opportunity presented itself.    Yah did not expect her and her family to starve and her way of earning a living was acceptable.

Tamar was erroneously case out of her family in contravention of Torah and engaged in harlotry in order to make Judah, her father in law tosee his responsibility to provide support.

Gomer, on the other hand chose harlotry whilst being supported as the wife of Hosea.

The story of Gomer draws a parallel with that of the ‘Children of Israel’

The first commandment demands that we do not throw (our) godship in Yah’s face.

Gomer chose to sell herself despite being married to Hosea and she ended up despised and rejected.   Thus is the story of mankind.

Yah is the Creator, Hhe knows it all, He has got the tee-shirt.

But we prefer the harlotry of Gomer, instead of being loyal and obedient to our ‘Husband’ we flirt with other gods, be they ourselves or mammon.    Most people worship money and are not happy to trust and rely on Yah’s provision, they want to help out by using their own knowledge of good and evil,   This is the true harlotry.

Many of us see harlotry as evil, but that of Rahab and Tamar were choices forced upon them by external circumstances, harlots provide a service which we should not automatically condemn, as Yahushua said, let he who is without this sin cast the first stone.

The Torah said that the woman taken in adultery should be stoned ALONG WITH THE MALE PARTNER and since there was no male partner presented to Yahushua, he challenged the Pharisee’s as to their interpretation of Torah.

We, as a society, tend to mix the evil harlotry of Gomer with the justifiable harlotry of Rahab and Tamar, we must be very careful that we are not playing the pharisee!