Ezekiel 16:47-51

16:47 Have you not copied their behavior ¹  and practiced their abominable deeds? In a short time ²  you became even more depraved in all your conduct than they were! 16:48 As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as wickedly as you and your daughters have behaved.

16:49 “‘See here – this was the iniquity ³  of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help ⁴  the poor and needy. 16:50 They were haughty and practiced abominable deeds before me. Therefore when I saw it I removed them. 16:51 Samaria has not committed half the sins you have; you have done more abominable deeds than they did. ⁵  You have made your sisters appear righteous with all the abominable things you have done.

Jeremiah 3:8-11

3:8 She also saw ⁶  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ⁷  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ⁸  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁹  3:9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ¹⁰  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ¹¹  3:10 In spite of all this, ¹²  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ¹³  says the Lord. 3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “walked in their ways.”

² tn The Hebrew expression has a temporal meaning as illustrated by the use of the phrase in 2 Chr 12:7.

³ tn Or “guilt.”

⁴ tn Heb “strengthen the hand of.”

⁵ tn Or “you have multiplied your abominable deeds beyond them.”

⁶ tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

⁷ tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

⁸ tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

⁹ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

¹⁰ tc The translation reads the form as a causative (Hiphil, תַּהֲנֵף, tahanef) with some of the versions in place of the simple stative (Qal, תֶּחֱנַף, tekhenaf) in the MT.

¹¹ tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”

¹² tn Heb “And even in all this.”

¹³ tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”