Ezekiel's retellings of the story in chapters 16 and 23 can offend modern readers. Two things must be noted. First, Ezekiel has a peculiar strategy of dramatizing a reality and, to modern tastes, exaggerating it. His use of the marital metaphor for the relationship of the Lord and Israel is an example. The metaphor was at least as old as Hosea 1---3; Ezekiel makes it concrete far beyond any usage in Hosea, drawing out the personification and dwelling on its sexual aspect. Second, Ezekiel describes the infidelity of Israel as flagrant sexual misconduct: she is a prostitute and deserves to be humiliated and punished. The prophet is a child of his time, portraying the broken relationship as a woman's betrayal of a man, and the deity's act of justice as satisfying his male rage and jealousy (e.g., 16, 23-24).
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