Judah and Israel Are like Sisters

⁶ ·When [^LIn the days when] Josiah [^CJeremiah began his work in Josiah’s thirteenth year (626 bc) and continued until Josiah’s death (609 bc) and beyond; 1:1–3] was ·ruling Judah [^Lking], the Lord said to me, “Did you see what unfaithful Israel did? She was like a prostitute with her idols on every hill and under every green tree [2:20]. ⁷ I said to myself, ‘Israel will come back to me after she does this evil,’ but she didn’t come back. And Israel’s ·wicked [traitorous; treacherous] sister Judah saw what she did [Ezek. 13; 26]. ⁸ Judah saw that I ·divorced [^Lsent away with a certificate of divorce] unfaithful Israel because of her adultery [^Cin the Assyrian exile of 722 bc], but that didn’t make Israel’s ·wicked [traitorous; treacherous] sister Judah afraid. She also went out and acted like a prostitute! ⁹ And she didn’t care that she was acting like a prostitute. So she made her country ·unclean [defiled; polluted; ^Cin a ritual sense] and was guilty of adultery with stone and wood [^Cby worshiping idols made of these materials]. ¹⁰ Israel’s ·wicked [traitorous; treacherous] sister, Judah, didn’t even come back to me with her whole heart, but only pretended,” says the Lord.