Ezekiel 16:4
And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
Ezekiel 16:4 pictures a newborn left wholly uncared for, its navel uncut, with no washing in water to cleanse and supple it, no salting, and no swaddling. The verse belongs to a strong parable of apostasy in which Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem are portrayed as an unfaithful woman, when God's chosen people abandoned Him, joined themselves to the surrounding nations, and worshiped their gods. The chapter portrays God's covenant relationship with His people in marriage imagery, in which the church as a woman was espoused to the Lord and became His, but then broke the covenant and relied on another.
The harlot, lewd, and licentious woman in this portrayal symbolizes a corrupt, fallen, and apostate church, in contrast with the virtuous woman who represents a pure church. The Jewish church becoming a harlot shows how God's church becomes a harlot when it turns from Him and joins itself to the world. That joining is seeking the friendship of the world through unlawful union with the kings of the earth, joining surrounding nations and worshiping their gods, and abandoning God for Babylon, and that union with the world is called adultery or fornication.
The harlot figure here is the same figure used for Babylon in Revelation, so the Jewish church becoming a harlot in this chapter is the same pattern by which the Christian church becomes Babylon. The fall of the Jewish church as a harlot is an example of a church being rejected by God, and that rejection was distinct from her destruction, which was delayed for a considerable time. The marriage imagery of the union of God's people with the Lord in this chapter does not describe the marriage of the Lamb at the end.