Your Elder Sister Is Samaria
44 “‘“Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you, saying, ‘As is the mother, so is her daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. 46 Your 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. 47 Yet you have not walked in their ways, nor done their abominations; but soon you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. 48 As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. 49 “‘“Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 They were arrogant and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it. 51 Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done. 52 You also bear your own shame yourself, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous than you. Yes, be also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters. 53 “‘“I will reverse their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives among them; 54 that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them. 55 Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters will return to their former estate; and you and your daughters will return to your former estate. 56 For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you all around. 58 You have borne your lewdness and your abominations,” says Yahweh. 59 “‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “I will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. 60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, your elder sisters and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant. 62 I will establish my covenant with you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh; 63 that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”
Jerusalem is placed between two cities she despised and ranked below both, and then given an everlasting covenant she is told she did not earn.
The comparison is designed to be intolerable. Two sisters are named. On the left is Samaria, the capital of the kingdom Judah had watched fall and had congratulated itself on outliving. On the right is Sodom, a name that had become a byword for what God destroys. And the verdict is delivered twice: Samaria hasn't committed half of your sins, and Sodom has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done.
What Sodom's iniquity actually was gets stated here, and it is worth reading against the assumption most readers bring. Pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn't strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. The list begins with arrogance and comfort, and the item given weight is a failure to help people who needed it. The chapter does not deny the abomination named in Genesis. It puts the social sins first, in a sentence addressed to a city about to fall for the same combination.
The most cutting clause is that Jerusalem has justified your sisters — made them look righteous by comparison, and so supplied their defense. A city that existed to display what God is like has ended up as the best argument available to the towns he judged.
And then, with no transition and no condition, the chapter turns. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. The word for it is the same word used of the foundling in the field. Nothing has changed about the woman. What is added, and stated twice, is that this new arrangement is not by your covenant — not on the terms she agreed to and broke.
The last verse is the strangest ending to a chapter of this kind in Scripture, and it holds two things together that are usually opposed. She will remember, be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame — and the reason given for the silence is not the sin. It is the pardon: when I have forgiven you all that you have done. Shame is not removed by forgiveness here; it is produced by it. That is a claim about how grace actually lands on someone who knows what they are, and the book will make it again in almost the same words Ezekiel 36:31–32.
settled What this mark means