Jeremiah 3:8-11

3:8 She also saw ¹  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ²  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ³  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁴  3:9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ⁵  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ⁶  3:10 In spite of all this, ⁷  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ⁸  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. ⁹ 

Matthew 12:41-42

12:41 The people ¹⁰  of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented when Jonah preached to them ¹¹  – and now, ¹²  something greater than Jonah is here! 12:42 The queen of the South ¹³  will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, ¹⁴  something greater than Solomon is here!

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

³ 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.

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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.

⁶ tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”

⁷ tn Heb “And even in all this.”

⁸ tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”

⁹ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “men”; the word here (ἀνήρ, anhr) usually indicates males or husbands, but occasionally is used in a generic sense of people in general, as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 1.a, 2).

¹¹ tn Grk “at the preaching of Jonah.”

¹² tn Grk “behold.”

¹³ sn On the queen of the South see 1 Kgs 10:1-3 and 2 Chr 9:1-12, as well as Josephus, Ant. 8.6.5-6 (8.165-175). The South most likely refers to modern southwest Arabia, possibly the eastern part of modern Yemen, although there is an ancient tradition reflected in Josephus which identifies this geo-political entity as Ethiopia.

¹⁴ tn Grk “behold.”