When God Was a Woman

What metaphors are used in When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone?

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Female sexual infidelity becomes the ultimate sin and is used as an analogy for the entire Hebrew people's infidelity to Yahweh. The prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Nahum use this metaphor extensively. Jeremiah asks how Yahweh can take back a nation that forsakes him for other gods, that prefers to "play the whore". Yahweh divorces "apostate Israel", but her faithless sister Judah sees and does likewise. Ezekiel writes of two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who behave lewdly in Egypt and must have their houses burned to make them stop. Nahum, writing in Nineveh, strikes out against Ishtar and sexuality, equating harlotry with witchcraft, and declaring he will show the nations the people's shame. In the Book of Hosea it is unclear when the prophet is denouncing his harlot wife and when Yahweh is attacking the people.

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When God Was a Woman