And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And I said after she had done all these things, She will return unto me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,

And I say, after her doing all these, Unto Me thou dost turn back, and she hath not turned back, and see it doth her treacherous sister Judah.

And I said, After she has done all these things she will come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah saw it.

And when she had done all these things, I said: 'Return to me.' But she did not return. And her deceitful sister Judah saw this:

Et dixi, Post facere ipsam (hoc est, postquam fecit omnia haec,) Ad me revertere (alii in tertia persona reddunt, Revertatur;) et non reversa est: et vidit perfida ejus soror Jehudah.

Or, "And I said (i. e., within myself), After she has done all these things, she will return to me." But she did not return.
Treacherous - literally, "Falsehood," i. e., false, faithless. The character of the two sisters is plainly marked. Samaria is apostate; she abandons Yahweh's worship altogether. Judah maintains the form only; her secret desires are set upon the orgies of pagan worship.

And I said - By the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Amos, etc.; for all these prophesied to that rebellious people, and exhorted them to return to the Lord.

And I said, after she had done these things,.... All these idolatries, in the several places mentioned, after she had repeated them over and over; the Lord sent to them by the Prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, and others, who prophesied before the captivity of the ten tribes, and entreated them, saying,
turn unto me: to my worship, as the Targum; from their idols, to him the living God; they were not without admonitions, exhortations, and declarations of grace, and so were without excuse:
but she returned not; to fear and serve the Lord, but remained in idolatry, obstinate and inflexible:
and her treacherous sister Judah saw it; her treachery and breach of covenant, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions add, for explanation sake; Judah, or the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and who were allied to the ten tribes by birth and by religion, and equally treacherous to God, the husband of them both, saw all the idolatry of Israel, and the aggravations of it, and what followed upon it, namely, their captivity in Babylon, yet did not learn and take warning hereby.

I said-- (2-Kings 17:13).
sister-- (Ezekiel 16:46; Ezekiel 23:2, Ezekiel 23:4).

And I said, sc. to myself, i.e., I thought. A speaking by the prophets (Rashi) is not to be thought of; for it is no summons, turn again to me, but only the thought, they will return. It is true that God caused backsliding Israel to be ever called again to repentance by the prophets, yet without effect. Meantime, however, no reference is made to what God did in this connection, only Israel's behaviour towards the Lord being here kept in view. The Chet. ותּראה is the later usage; the Keri substitutes the regular contracted form ותּרא. The object, it (the whoredom of Israel), may be gathered from what precedes.