44. The Lord said, “People will use this proverb about you, Jerusalem: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’
45. You really are your mother's daughter. She detested her husband and her children. You are like your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. You and your sister cities had a Hittite mother and an Amorite father.
46. “Your elder sister is Samaria, in the north, with her villages. Your younger sister, with her villages, is Sodom, in the south.
47. Were you content to follow in their footsteps and copy their disgusting actions? No, in only a little while you were behaving worse than they were in everything you did.
48. “As surely as I am the living God,” the Sovereign Lord says, “your sister Sodom and her villages never did the evil that you and your villages have done.
49. She and her daughters were proud because they had plenty to eat and lived in peace and quiet, but they did not take care of the poor and the underprivileged.
50. They were proud and stubborn and did the things that I hate, so I destroyed them, as you well know.
51. “Samaria did not sin half as much as you have. You have acted more disgustingly than she ever did. Your corruption makes your sisters look innocent by comparison.
52. And now you will have to endure your disgrace. Your sins are so much worse than those of your sisters that they look innocent beside you. Now blush and bear your shame, because you make your sisters look pure.”
53. The Lord said to Jerusalem, “I will make them prosperous again — Sodom and her villages and Samaria and her villages. Yes, I will make you prosperous too.
54. You will be ashamed of yourself, and your disgrace will show your sisters how well off they are.
55. They will become prosperous again, and you and your villages will also be restored.
56. Didn't you joke about Sodom in those days when you were proud
57. and before the evil you did had been exposed? Now you are just like her — a joke to the Edomites, the Philistines, and your other neighbours who hate you.
58. You must suffer for the obscene, disgusting things you have done.” The Lord has spoken.
59. The Sovereign Lord says, “I will treat you as you deserve, because you ignored your promises and broke the covenant.
60. But I will honour the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will make a covenant with you that will last for ever.
61. You will remember how you have acted, and be ashamed of it when you get your elder sister and your younger sister back. I will let them be like daughters to you, even though this was not part of my covenant with you.