The Foundling
1 Again Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations; 3 and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite. 4 As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut. You weren’t washed in water to cleanse you. You weren’t salted at all, nor wrapped in blankets at all. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born. 6 “‘“When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ 7 I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained to excellent beauty. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew; yet you were naked and bare. 8 “‘“Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my garment over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine. 9 “‘“Then I washed you with water. Yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered work and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 I decked you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands, and put a chain on your neck. 12 I put a ring on your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 Thus you were decked with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered work. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and you prospered to royal estate. 14 Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh. 15 “‘“But you trusted in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by. It was his. 16 You took some of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them. This shouldn’t happen, neither shall it be. 17 You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and played the prostitute with them. 18 You took your embroidered garments, covered them, and set my oil and my incense before them. 19 My bread also which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you even set it before them for a pleasant aroma; and so it was,” says the Lord Yahweh. 20 “‘“Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and you have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Was your prostitution a small matter, 21 that you have slain my children and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire to them? 22 In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and were wallowing in your blood.
Jerusalem's history is told as the rescue of an abandoned newborn, and every good thing she later spent was something she had been given.
The parable opens by denying the city its pedigree. An Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite. Jerusalem had been a Canaanite town before David took it, and the sentence is historically exact. It is also a refusal of the one argument the city most relied on. Whatever standing Jerusalem had did not come from its stock.
The picture that follows is of a newborn left to die. The navel is uncut. The child is unwashed, unsalted, unwrapped. Salting and swaddling were the ordinary first care of an infant, so their absence says the baby was not merely poor but unwanted. Then the verse that names it: you were cast out in the open field, because you were abhorred in the day that you were born. Exposure was a real practice and the text does not soften it.
What happens next is the whole gospel of the chapter, and it is one word repeated. Somebody passes by, sees the child in her blood, and says Though you are in your blood, live! — and says it twice. Nothing is said about the child's promise or beauty. She has neither yet. The only thing operating in the verse is the will of the passer-by, and the command is simply to live.
Then a second passing, years later, and a covenant: a garment spread over her, a pledge, and you became mine. What follows is an inventory, and it should be read as one. Washed, anointed, embroidered clothing, leather sandals, fine linen and silk, bracelets, a chain, a nose ring, earrings, a crown. Fine flour, honey and oil to eat. Renown among the nations for a beauty that is immediately attributed: for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you.
Every item on that list reappears in the next section as something she spent on other gods — the gold and silver made into images, the embroidered clothing draped on shrines, the flour and oil and honey set before them. That is why the inventory is given at such length. The indictment is not that she had nothing and wanted more. It is that there was nothing she gave away which had not first been put on her by the one she left.
settled What this mark means