⁷ And I thought, “After she has done all this she will return to me,” but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it.^(A)

⁴⁶ Your big sister is Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; your little sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.^(A)

A Plea for Repentance

A Call to Repentance

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

² Mortal, there were two women, the daughters of one mother; ³ they prostituted themselves in Egypt; they prostituted themselves in their youth; their breasts were caressed there, and their virgin bosoms were fondled.^{(A) 4} Oholah was the name of the older and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.^(B)

⁸ She^[a] saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce, yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and prostituted herself.^{(A) 9} Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.^{(B) 10} Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart but only in pretense, says the Lord.^(C)

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me: Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.^(D)

⁶ So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.^{(A) 7} Do not be like your ancestors and your kindred, who were faithless to the Lord God of their ancestors, so that he made them a desolation, as you see.^{(B) 8} Do not now be stiff-necked as your ancestors were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, so that his fierce anger may turn away from you.^{(C) 9} For as you return to the Lord, your kindred and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”^(D)

¹⁰ So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.^{(E) 11} Only a few from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.^{(F) 12} The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the officials commanded by the word of the Lord.

¹³ Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law that I commanded your ancestors and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”^{(A) 14} They would not listen but were stubborn, as their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.^(B)