THEOSISJerome of Stridon
The suffering of some serves as a remedy for others. When a murderer faces capital punishment, he encounters justice for his actions, while others find a healing for the offense committed against them. In a similar way, when the ten tribes known as Israel were taken captive by the Assyrians and relocated to Media, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who should have feared the same fate and turned wholeheartedly to God, exceeded the sins of the ten tribes. They knowingly engaged in idolatry, setting up a statue of Baal in God’s temple, which Ezekiel referred to as an idol provoking the Lord’s jealousy. He portrays them as two sisters, originating from the same lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, labeling the first one as apostate and the second as treacherous.
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The first completely turned away from God, immediately beginning to worship golden calves in Dan and Bethel. The second, having the Temple and reverence for the true God, gradually strayed from the Lord in emulation of her sister, thus earning the title of treacherous. There exists a prophetic significance here regarding heretics, who, through misguided reasoning and false knowledge, ascend the mountain of pride. Seduced by their carnal desires, they engage in forbidden acts under every pleasant tree. When they yield to the adversary for the destruction of the flesh, it often occurs that the house of Judah—representative of true belief and confession—is not dissuaded by their example but instead becomes further compromised, contaminating the church's foundation by indulging in the worship of created things contrary to God’s commands. Should a church leader attempt to guide the wayward back to the truth, excising the decay from the body and encouraging those who've strayed to repent, but they continue to persist in their prior transgressions while masquerading as followers of the church's truth, it can be said of them, "In all these things, her sister Judah, the offender, has not returned to Me with all her heart, but in falsehood." This revelation was made during the reign of Josiah, the righteous king, when Jeremiah commenced his prophetic mission.