III. The case of these sister kingdoms is compared, and judgment given upon the comparison, that of the two Judah was the worse (v. 11): Israel has justified herself more than Judah, that is, she is not so bad as Judah is. This comparative justification will stand Israel in little stead; what will it avail us to say, We are not so bad as others, when yet we are not really good ourselves? But it will serve as an aggravation of the sin of Judah, which was in two respects worse than that of Israel:—1. More was expected from Judah than from Israel; so that Judah dealt treacherously, they vilified a more sacred profession, and falsified a more solemn promise, than Israel did. 2. Judah might have taken warning by the ruin of Israel for their idolatry, and would not. God's judgments upon others, if they be not means of our reformation, will help to aggravate our destruction. The prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxiii. 11) makes the same comparison between Jerusalem and Samaria that this prophet here makes between Judah and Israel, nay, and (Ezek. xvi. 48) between Jerusalem and Sodom, and Jerusalem is made the worst of the three.