Having witnessed all of this, surely Judah would not follow the same road as her sister
in the north? The historical background is that Judah had remained relatively faithful to the Lord up until the fall of Israel in the north to Assyria in 722 BC.1 But sadly, she did not learn from what she saw happen in the north. Israel is the faithless one
and Judah is the treacherous sister.
This description of Judah applies to both marriage and covenant. In the context of marriage, it refers to someone who deserts their spouse for another, and in the context of covenant it refers to the failure to maintain the responsibilities of the relationship. Judah's failure was not simply a breaking of divine law, but rather a failure in relationship with the Lord.2 Judah declined rapidly after the death of King Hezekiah in 687 BC and even more quickly under the spiritually corrupt rule of Manasseh (687-642 BC). Instead of fearing the Lord and turning to him in faithfulness, Judah followed the same path as her faithless sister and she too played the whore
by taking part in the worship of Canaan’s gods. This treacherous
behaviour was still rampant in the early part of Josiah’s reign, until it was superficially restrained through his religious reforms.3
8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.