A Call to Repentance

⁶ The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what ^(A)backsliding Israel has done? She has ^(B)gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.

The Younger Sister, Jerusalem

¹¹ “Now ^(A)although her sister Oholibah saw this, ^(B)she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry.

²⁸ When I brought them into the land concerning which I had raised My hand in an oath to give them, and ^(A)they saw all the high hills and all the thick trees, there they offered their sacrifices and provoked Me with their offerings. There they also sent up their ^(B)sweet aroma and poured out their drink offerings.

Jerusalem’s Adultery

^31 (A)“You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your ^[a]high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned ^(B)payment.

²⁴ that ^(A)you also built for yourself a shrine, and ^(B)made a ^[a]high place for yourself in every street. ²⁵ You built your high places ^(C)at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry.

^24 (A)Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but ^(B)followed^[a] the counsels and the ^[b]dictates of their evil hearts, and ^(C)went^[c] backward and not forward.

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹² Go and proclaim these words toward ^(B)the north, and say:

¹⁴ “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; ^(H)“for I am married to you. I will take you, ^(I)one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to ^(J)Zion.

⁸ Then I saw that ^(A)for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had ^(B)put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; ^(C)yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.