Judah Follows Israel’s Example
During Josiah's reign, the LORD describes faithless Israel going after idols on every high hill and under every green tree. Though God expected return after all this, Israel did not come back, and Judah saw both the sin and the divorce that followed.
N6ow in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there. 7I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.
Israel's indifference defiled the land through adultery with stones and trees, and Judah still did not return with her whole heart. Her return was only outward and pretended, not real before the LORD.
9Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.