⁷ And I said, After she has done all these things she will come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah saw it.

⁴⁶ Your older sister is Samaria, living at your left hand, she and her daughters: and your younger sister, living at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

¹³ And he gave witness to Israel and Judah, by every prophet and seer, saying, Come back from your evil ways, and do my orders and keep my rules, and be guided by the law which I gave to your fathers and sent to you by my servants the prophets.

¹⁴ And they did not give ear, but became stiff-necked, like their fathers who had no faith in the Lord their God.

⁶ So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria.

⁷ Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were sinners against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them a cause of fear, as you see.

⁸ Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place, which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from you.

⁹ For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from you if you come back to him.

¹⁰ So the runners went from town to town through all the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun: but they were laughed at and made sport of.

¹¹ However, some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun put away their pride and came to Jerusalem.

¹² And in Judah the power of God gave them one heart to do the orders of the king and the captains, which were taken as the word of the Lord.

⁸ And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same.

⁹ So that through all her loose behaviour the land became unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and trees.

¹⁰ But for all this, her false sister Judah has not come back to me with all her heart, but with deceit, says the Lord.

¹¹ And the Lord said to me, Israel in her turning away is seen to be more upright than false Judah.

² Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother:

³ They were acting like loose women in Egypt; when they were young their behaviour was loose: there their breasts were crushed, even the points of their young breasts were crushed.

⁴ Their names were Oholah, the older, and Oholibah, her sister: and they became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah.

¹ Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help.

² After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him.

³ And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.

⁴ O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes early away.

¹ Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open.