Men of the place: the Hebrew says “men of her place.” The ancient versions have “men of the place.” Hebrew Old Testament Text Project rates the Hebrew text as {B} and recommends “Men of her [dwelling] place.” Good News Translation takes her dwelling place to be Enaim in verse 14 and translates “some men of Enaim.” This is a satisfactory model.

Harlot: the Revised Standard Version footnote suggests that this is a different word than that used in verse 15. The Hebrew word is qedesha, which is derived from the word for “holy” or “consecrated” and refers to a temple or cult prostitute, a woman who sells her sex as a religious duty, usually connected with fertility rites in Canaanite religions. See the discussion in verse 14. According to Westermann, use of this term would be a more polite way of referring to a harlot, as cultic prostitution was an accepted institution in Canaanite culture, but hardly so among the Israelites.

Translators may find that nothing is gained in using a different word for harlot in verse 21. The idea of cult prostitution will be strange to speakers of most languages. Translators should decide if a footnote is required. If so, a footnote may say, for example, “This refers to women who took part in Canaanite fertility rites and who had sex with many men.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .