NOTES for Eze 23:1-49
We are already accustomed to the Bible comparing the apostates' immersion in the pagan milieu with prostitution, but do we always realise fully what lies behind this comparison? We naturally remember that the Covenant with God is likened to marriage and its violation to adultery, and since sexual rites formed an integral part of pagan cults, the accusations of prostitution against the pagans were more than a metaphor. All this is true, but even apart from what has been mentioned, the very essence of paganism contains something that deeply affects the sensual sphere and makes a person dependent on obscure impulses of the subconscious that are not always controlled by reason.
In the end, unrestrained “freedom of feelings” turns into dependence on impulses, while permissiveness proves to be a form of slavery like that into which a drug addict or alcoholic falls. It is the same here: the punishment for prostitution turns out to be the very union with their lovers that the sinners desired so greatly. They receive exactly what they sought, and from this flow all the other calamities that they would like to avoid, but it is already too late. Sinners do not perish when they are stoned—that is only the finishing touch—but much earlier, when they consented to their own destruction.