Israel, in her relationship with God, is often depicted as a harlot due to her unfaithfulness. Like a beautiful woman full of promise, as described in Ezekiel 16, she eagerly entered into a marriage covenant with Him, vowing obedience. Yet, under the tests of life, she quickly broke her vows, behaving worse than a common street harlot by chasing after idols and desires that God prohibited. Her fickle lusts led her into relationships with ways of life other than His, abandoning Him in what He labels as adultery. This unfaithfulness is further illustrated in Psalm 78:56-57, where Israel is compared to a deceitful bow that fails under pressure, not shooting arrows where aimed. She tested and provoked the Most High God, turning back and acting unfaithfully like her fathers. Her drive for new experiences and discontent led her to reject His commands, viewing them as denying her pleasure, and instead seeking satisfaction her way, often at the expense of godly conduct. God calls Israel's sins fornication, using sexual terms to reveal her spiritual unfaithfulness to the public. Her harlotry is primarily idolatry, but includes all other sins, such as unfaithfulness in business, in managing His creation, in forgetting the source of her blessings, and in personal relationships. This gross disloyalty and breaking of the marriage covenant highlight her rejection of Him and His way right from the beginning, making her a vehicle for spreading false ways among the heathen. Israel's powerful bent to be like everyone else and throw off what makes her peculiar and holy further underscores her deviancy. Despite being favored with gifts greater than any other nation due to the intimate relationship with Him, her responsibility and subsequent judgment are the sternest. Her fearful and fickle discontent prevented her from seeking Him to understand His purpose, instead pursuing experiences different from those He provided to prepare her for His Kingdom.

God describes His relationship with a specific woman, Jerusalem, which stands for all Israel, using the language of marriage, a covenant relationship to One to whom she was to be faithful. He reveals the things He did for her as her figurative Husband, expecting her to adhere to the terms of the covenant, which consisted of His laws covering every important aspect of life. However, Israel's conduct was marked by faithlessness, as Jesus Himself noted, calling His generation faithless and perverse. God's exclusive relationship with Israel intensifies her unfaithfulness, as He entered into no similar covenant with any other nation in history, favoring her with gifts greater than any other, including the revelation of Himself and knowledge of His purpose. Despite this intimacy, Israel's departure from God was profound, leading Him to divorce the great harlot Israel, though He continued a fractious relationship with her to fulfill His promises and purposes. Israel is depicted as the preeminent harlot of the Bible, having risen to worldly greatness through the misuse of God's gifts. Representing all Israel, Jerusalem is acknowledged as great in political, economic, and military power, with influence so vast that only she can hold the Beast in check and make it do her bidding until God's appointed time for her humbling. Primarily represented by the Joseph tribes, Israel has brushed the world aside in recent history, though her power is tainted by whoredoms, religious confusion, and deviance from her responsibility to God. Revelation portrays the great harlot sitting on many waters, the Beast, and seven mountains, symbolizing her authority and wide-ranging influence over many nations. The waters where she sits are defined as peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues, indicating the Beast's diverse composition, while the Woman is depicted as one powerful and influential unit, distinct and united in contrast to the fragmented Beast.

Israel has fully earned the title of the Great Harlot Babylon, as revealed in Revelation 17 and 18, through her faithless relationship with God. Despite entering into a symbolic marriage with Him, a unique covenant not shared with any other nation, Israel has rebelled against her responsibilities and played the harlot with the world. She has embraced worldly ways to such an extent that she has outdone the Gentiles in their manner of life, becoming appropriately named Babylon the Great. God depicts all of Israel in close relationship with the Beast, influencing it, with the two Joseph tribes, America and Britain, as the strongest components of this Harlot, particularly America due to its significant end-time influence. Israel's harlotry stems from an evil heart of unbelief, leading to irrational, erratic, and unreliable spiritual and moral behavior. She could not be trusted to remain firm in her commitment to be faithful to God's commandments and way of life. Though she transgressed every commandment in multiple ways, her most frequent spiritual sin is gross idolatry, serving herself and following the whims of the moment for fleeting pleasures. Rejecting her divine Husband as Ruler, Israel desired a king like other nations, conducting her affairs in the Babylonian manner and becoming just another kingdom of this world. Despite her great material advantages, Israel is spiritually great in immorality, confusion, deviance from responsibility, and polluted influence. Her wealth and power among nations, illustrated by elegant clothing, jewelry, and precious metals, enable her to guide and coerce many nations, sitting in a position of authority over the Beast, a fearsome entity of diverse peoples. Only Israel possesses this combination of strength to control such a force, depicted as one unified people in contrast to the Beast's loose confederation. Historically and in the present, represented primarily by the Joseph tribes, Israel has brushed the world aside politically and economically, fitting the characteristics of the Great Harlot in Revelation 17 and 18.

The Kingdom of Israel, formed under Jeroboam after the division of Solomon's kingdom, fell into deep sin through his religious innovations, which became a lasting transgression for the northern tribes. Subsequent kings of Israel perpetuated Jeroboam's apostasy, never turning back to the ways of the Lord, and thus the Lord grew very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight. Through prophets like Hosea, God warned Judah not to follow Israel's path of idolatry, using harlotry as an analogy for their unfaithfulness, pleading that Judah should not offend as Israel had by playing the harlot. Yet, Israel set the pace into idolatry, and Judah followed with equal zeal, stumbling together in their iniquity. God judged that backsliding Israel appeared more righteous than treacherous Judah, for Judah witnessed Israel's fall and mass deportation but refused to repent.

God's indictment of Israel and Judah reveals a profound betrayal, portraying Israel as a harlot in a spiritual sense due to their unfaithfulness to Him. He had called Israel out of Egypt, forming them into a nation with a special, intimate relationship, bound by a covenant ratified with blood to worship and obey Him alone. Yet, they forsook Him, diving wholeheartedly into idolatry, breaking the Sabbath repeatedly, and foolishly trusting in other nations rather than relying on His protection and blessings. This rebellion is likened to spiritual adultery, as He considered the covenant with Israel a marriage, with Himself as the husband and the nation as His wife. Their rejection of His benevolence and pursuit of alliances with foreign nations, seeking riches and safety on their own terms, infuriated Him, as they spurned the very promises He offered. In Amos 3 and 4, God's judgment against Israel is intensified because they should have known better, having been educated in His ways and given His laws. Despite this, they flagrantly sinned and rebelled, becoming morally warped, unable to discern right from wrong. The women of Israel, described as urging their husbands to oppress the poor to satisfy selfish desires, signify the depth of societal decay. Their religious practices were corrupted, filled with spectacle rather than sincerity, as they overdid sacrifices and tithes to be seen as pious, yet their actions were laced with sin. Repeated warnings through calamities like famine, drought, and war failed to turn them back to Him, as they remained spiritually obtuse, hardened against His correction. In II Kings 17, the historical overview of Israel's defeat and exile by the Assyrians underscores their primary sin of idolatry, equated with sin itself, as they feared other gods and forsook the One who freed and blessed them. They attempted to hide their rebellion, secretly worshipping at high places, underestimating His omniscience, reducing Him to the level of a dumb idol. Their complete apostasy is evident as they abandoned all His commandments, becoming enslaved to ungodliness, engaging in idolatry, child sacrifice, witchcraft, and selling themselves to do evil, deliberately rebelling against Him in all aspects of life. Ezekiel 16 and 20 further paint a picture of utter perversion and shameful behavior, with Judah following Israel's path, flaunting rebellion in His face. Their failure to keep the Sabbath, a sign setting them apart as His people, led to a rapid drift from Him, resulting in a loss of identity and connection, blending into the world as the lost tribes of Israel. Forsaking the Sabbath was tantamount to forsaking Him, severing the vital relationship that facilitated learning His way. Despite this profound unfaithfulness, He is not finished with Israel, promising a marvelous work to turn them back to Him, though it will come through great tribulation and harsh lessons, ultimately leading to a time when they will hallow His name and fear Him.

Israel's national sin is deeply rooted in faithlessness, vividly portrayed through the metaphor of harlotry. The book of Hosea captures this theme, where the Lord instructs Hosea to take a wife of harlotry, reflecting the land's great harlotry by departing from the Lord. This imagery presents Israel as a faithless wife, guilty of extreme betrayal in her spiritual covenant with God, which manifests as idolatry. God is depicted as a faithful Husband and a loving, longsuffering Parent, while Israel consistently fails in her responsibilities within this relationship, an act God labels as adultery and harlotry. The term "zanah," translated as harlotry, signifies not a single act of adultery but a sexually wanton way of life, ultimately pointing to spiritual idolatry. Hosea links harlotry with wine and new wine, illustrating its addictive power that enslaves the heart, destroys discretion, and erases understanding. This faithlessness permeates all aspects of life, making Israel unreliable in commitments to God, mates, country, employers, and contracts. As a people, Israelites struggle to remain faithful, always seeking personal gain and pleasure, a characteristic absorbed from a culture saturated with the spirit of harlotry. This pervasive unfaithfulness results in the loss of vital truths, including the importance of God's Word to family and community life, and Israel's relationship with Him. It extends further, eroding reliable bases for business, moral standards, trust in relationships, and dependability in all facets of life. The absence of steadfast love and the lack of true knowledge and acknowledgment of God further distance Israel from Him, reflecting a relationship that is, at best, very distant.