Jeremiah 3:7

⁴⁶Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters.

⁶So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. ⁸Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. ⁹For if you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them. ¹¹Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹²Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the LORD’s word.

¹³Yet the LORD testified to Israel and to Judah, by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” ¹⁴Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck like the neck of their fathers who didn’t believe in the LORD their God.

⁸I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also went and played the prostitute. ⁹Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood. ¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says the LORD.

¹¹The LORD said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹Israel, return to the LORD your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.

²“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. ³They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there. ⁴Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

¹“Come! Let’s return to the LORD; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds. ²After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him. ³Let’s acknowledge the LORD. Let’s press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, the LORD will appear. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain that waters the earth.” ⁴“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.