Ezekiel 16 conveys a well-known portrayal of Israel's checkered history. Its borrowed metaphors
textual reuse and developing content defy a transparent explanation of its origins. In this
monograph Tracy J. McKenzie explores the methods and motivations for textual expansions. After
surveying how secondary literature has addressed the interpretive nature of additions
traditions redactions and Fortschreibungen in prophetic texts he provides a new translation
and text-critical judgment of Ezekiel 16. He then analyzes how linguistic elements
diachronically achieve a composite unity in the passage. This composite unity sets up the
analysis that explores the ways in which the expansions have built on pre-existing texts
rewritten them and developed their content. The author's conclusion focuses on how the
interpretive moves in the expansions disclose possible motives and social settings in Yehud.
