Ezekiel chapter 16

vs 31

Yeah, we have a word for that now - slut. I know, it's an awful and derogatory term, but that is what God is meaning. You read this passage and tell me God isn't being derogatory.

vs 32

I don't even know what to say here. The fact is that regardless of whether the stranger is Elle McPherson (wow, she must be old now - insert young good looking model here) or David Beckham (or some other young stud guy here), or whoever, your spouse alone gets that spot, it's specific for them. This goes just as much for mind space and stuff to really (cf Jesus). So God is saying in the same way that there is a spot that only a husband should fill, there is a religious spot that only God can fill. He has a right to it that no-one or nothing else has.

vs 33

No doubt that there were sleazeball men about who had their bits on the side, giving their little gifts and such, and no doubt there was the occasional woman who was the same. It's interesting how it works - there must be more to affairs than just the sex, because the gift giving and the roles that people fall into (from what I can gather from stories I've heard and read about) seems like it is there to meet a need that goes beyond a simple "I'm not getting any at home". A really interesting show at the moment is Misfits, where this group of criminal children gets superpowers based on how they think about themselves or something. One girl who thinks she's hot and God's gift to men gets the power that whenever someone touches her they want to have sex with her, and this feeds something in her - some desire to be wanted and special and important. I wonder if a similar feeling is met in idolatry? Money definitely makes us feel important and in charge, for example.

vs 34

I don't know what you call a woman who basically hires men as prostitutes all day long. Men are so easily swayed into this sort of thing though. To quote Clerks, they'll sleep with anything that says 'yes'.

vs 35

Oh, this isn't going to be good.

vs 36

That's quite a laundry list of bad things - a summary of all we've heard so far.

vs 37

O...kay? I don't know that this works so well in a modern cultural context. I think it's supposed to be shaming. But if they've already seen her naked... see, I think the idea is that as a nation, this sort of naked shaming is far more shameful.

What interests me is the "those you loved and those you hated" bit. Jerusalem, it seems, was not very discerning - prostituting herself to both allies and enemies. If you think about her history, this is true too - her kings had become vassals to her enemies, but then had also sought alliances with Egypt, and so on.

vs 38

I don't think 'blood vengance' is going to be a happy vengance. Well, okay, I don't think any vengance is happy vengance. But 'blood vengance' sounds particularly nasty. My assumption is it's got to do with the killing of children, and a sort of blood price for such killing.

vs 39

Perhaps they will do this because they all thought they were the only one? Or perhaps because it's the only public response that's allowed to the shaming of a prostitute or adulterous woman?

vs 40

Well... that was the sort of punishment that occurred back in the day. It's nasty to have it described to you before it happens. And this is what is going to happen to Jerusalem, in a manner of speaking. It's quite awful to think about a whole nation's prostitution before other gods and political allies being stripped and shown for all to see, and then being punished.