The Wife Who Paid Her Lovers
23 “‘“It has happened after all your wickedness—woe, woe to you!” says the Lord Yahweh— 24 “that you have built for yourselves a vaulted place, and have made yourselves a lofty place in every street. 25 You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution. 26 You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger. 27 See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your portion, and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way. 28 You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with them, and yet you weren’t satisfied. 29 You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of merchants, to Chaldea; and yet you weren’t satisfied with this. 30 “‘“How weak is your heart,” says the Lord Yahweh, “since you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute; 31 in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn pay. 32 “‘“Adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! 33 People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution. 34 You are different from other women in your prostitution, in that no one follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different.”’ 35 “Therefore, prostitute, hear Yahweh’s word: 36 ‘The Lord Yahweh says, “Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your children, that you gave to them; 37 therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those whom you have loved, with all those whom you have hated. I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. 38 I will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. 39 I will also give you into their hand, and they will throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places. They will strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels. They will leave you naked and bare. 40 They will also bring up a company against you, and they will stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords. 41 They will burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you will also give no hire any more. 42 So I will cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy will depart from you. I will be quiet, and will not be angry any more. 43 “‘“Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head,” says the Lord Yahweh: “and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.
The charge is unfaithfulness, and the detail that makes it unique is economic: this woman paid rather than being paid.
The imagery in this section is the hardest in the prophets to read, and it is deliberate. The subject is a marriage covenant broken, and the language chosen is the language of a wife's infidelity rather than of a servant's disobedience. That choice carries the argument. A servant who fails has broken a contract. A wife who leaves has broken something that was never a contract, and the grief in the passage is of the second kind.
What the chapter adds to the standard charge is an accountancy that has no parallel. Prostitution is a trade, and the whole point of a trade is payment. People give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side. The verdict on it is flat: You are different from other women. Judah's idolatry gained nothing whatever. It was paid for out of Judah's own treasury, in tribute and temple gold, to nations who then invaded her.
That is a serious observation about idolatry in general, and it is the reason the imagery is used at all. What is being described is not the pursuit of pleasure or of profit. It is an arrangement in which the party doing the pursuing pays for the privilege of being used, and keeps paying. How weak is your heart, the passage says, which is a stranger and more accurate diagnosis than wickedness.
The worst verse is the shortest. Among the things given to the lovers were the children: sons and daughters borne to God and then passed through the fire Ezekiel 16:20–21. And the sentence attached asks a question rather than making a charge — was your prostitution a small matter? The judgment that follows is executed by the lovers themselves, who are gathered against her, which is what happened historically and is the pattern the book keeps returning to. The nations Judah paid are the instrument of what Judah paid them for.
settled What this mark means