Ezekiel 16: The city that forgot how it began

Jerusalem's entire past is retold as the life of a woman who forgets that everything impressive about her came after rescue. The Book of Ezekiel begins the allegory with an abandoned infant in blood, given life before she possesses beauty, wealth, or status. Covenant, washing, clothing, jewelry, food, and a crown then create the splendor for which she becomes known, and the text immediately says whose comeliness made that beauty possible. The betrayal is therefore traced through the gifts themselves. Garments, silver, gold, oil, incense, food, children, public worship, and foreign relationships are all redirected. Jerusalem even pays the lovers she pursues, only to have those same alliances become agents of exposure and destruction. The comparison with Samaria and Sodom destroys the city's habit of judging others from a position of assumed superiority. Yet "Nevertheless" opens the final movement. God remembers the covenant Jerusalem forgot and promises an everlasting covenant that leaves the restored city ashamed rather than boastful.