The prophets often describe Israel’s unfaithfulness to God in the language of an unfaithful wife, and this entry collects those passages. Ezekiel 16:28 says Jerusalem played the whore with the Assyrians and still was not satisfied. Ezekiel 23 retells the story as two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, standing for Samaria and Jerusalem, who give themselves to foreign lovers. Hosea 4:12 says a spirit of whoredom has led the people astray so that they left their God, and the theme returns in Hosea 6:10 and 9:1.
The argument reads these as a record of Israel’s repeated rebellion, and also asks whether such explicit imagery is fitting in a book offered as the word of God.
You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied.
Ezekiel 16:28
My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.
Hosea 4:12
Source: see Credits and references (no. 17, p. 16).