Ezekiel 16 and the Song of Moses: A Prophetic Transformation?(Critical Essay‪)‬

Scholars have long recognized that in Ezekiel 16 the prophet draws on the harlotry metaphor of his prophetic predecessors to indict Jerusalem for its idolatry and foreign relations. (1) Moshe Greenberg, for example, described Ezekiel's expansion of this common motif when he noted, "By extending the metaphor in time, Ezekiel provides the adulterous wife of Hosea and Jeremiah with a biography." (2) However, commentators have thus far failed to notice that the building blocks of the oracle are found in the Song of Moses (Deut 32:1-43). (3) In this essay I will argue that Ezekiel's depiction of Israel in ch. 16 (chiefly section A, vv. 1-43) (4) represents a prophetic transformation of the rise and decline of Israel depicted in the Song, whereby he adopts the structure and themes of Deuteronomy 32 and infuses them with the prophetic motif of harlotry. (5) I begin the investigation by outlining the thematic, lexical, and structural links between the two passages and then more explicitly discuss criteria for establishing literary dependence. In the subsequent sections I address the following questions: Could Ezekiel have known and used the Song? Is it likely that he would have known and used the Song? Did he in fact use the Song elsewhere in his prophetic book? And is it likely that he would have used the Song in the way proposed in this essay? Finally, I mention numerous ways in which Ezekiel uniquely builds on and transforms his underlying text and then conclude by addressing the rhetorical import of Ezekiel's use of the Song.