What is the context?
The turning point is trust in the beauty and fame the Lord had given. The story now portrays Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness as prostitution: she offers herself to others instead of remaining faithful to her covenant partner.
The gifts themselves are turned to idolatry. Garments furnish high places and cover images, gold and silver become male idols, and the Lord’s oil, incense and food are offered before them.
The charge then becomes still more severe. Sons and daughters are sacrificed to idols. The Lord calls them His children and describes their deaths as slaughter.
The passage closes by returning to the beginning: Jerusalem has forgotten the days when she lay helpless in her own blood. Forgetting received mercy accompanies the misuse of the gifts that followed it.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry reads the chapter’s marriage story as an accusation of idolatry. Wesley likewise explains the prostitution as spiritual unfaithfulness and the images as rivals receiving what belonged to the Lord.
The USCCB notes on verse 16 point out how the story moves between the picture of prostitution and the reality of idol worship. The point is the betrayal of the covenant and the harm done with gifts entrusted to Jerusalem. The killing of children is part of the accusation itself, not merely a way of describing a private change of religious opinion.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.