יחזקאל, פרק ט״ז, פסוק ט״ז

The tragic betrayal of the nation is captured through the metaphor of an ungrateful woman who takes the precious gifts bestowed upon her by her benefactor and uses them to pursue illicit affairs. The act of building altars for foreign gods is compared to a woman preparing an inviting bed. In this imagery, she takes her beautiful garments, tears them into patches, and stacks them to create cushions and a high, padded bed to attract lovers [רד״ק, מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The patched, multicolored appearance of these high places resembles spotted sheep or mended shoes, reflecting how a prostitute might use colorful fabrics to beautify her home.

In reality, this reflects the nation taking the abundance of wealth, silver, and gold that God provided and using it to construct magnificent altars for idol worship. The variety of colors and patches represents the sheer number and diversity of the idols they worshipped, with each altar having its own unique structure and specific rituals [מצודת דוד, רד״ק]. While the nature of the betrayal is clear, there are differing views on how it was displayed. Some suggest the nation boldly set up these altars in famous, public locations for everyone to see [מצודת דוד]. Conversely, others maintain that these padded spaces were prepared for illicit worship in strict privacy [מלבי״ם].

The ultimate outcome of these actions is met with profound condemnation. The primary approach among commentators is that this highlights an unprecedented level of betrayal and ingratitude. Such severe behavior has never occurred before, nor will any nation or individual ever commit such acts in the future; it is entirely unacceptable. Offering a different perspective, [מלבי״ם] views this final condemnation as a reference to the ruined garments themselves, which symbolize the nation's spiritual gifts. The nation destroys these gifts even though they will never be replaced. On a deeper level, this implies that God will not descend upon Mount Sinai a second time to give His Torah, making the loss of these spiritual gifts permanent and irreversible.