find a more shattering first demand than was made of Hosea. The Jerusalem Bible (JB) gives it to us with almost the merciless brevity of the original: ‘Go, marry a whore, and get children with a whore, for the country itself has become nothing but a whore by abandoning Yahweh.’ This is strong talk. And as if throwing the word ‘whore’ at us three times in one sentence were not enough, the Hebrew has the root not a mere three times, but four.3 Was it meant literally? On the face of it, yes: exactly