(ii) This key verse deserves more thorough attention. The command to love is all too easy to take for granted, simply because the verse is so well-known. It was not the usual emotion towards a deity in the ancient Near East; fear was much more common. Indeed, the whole concept of loving God was drawn from the language of human relationships (and may even have been rather daring language when first applied to the Almighty). Israel’s relationship with God was compared by Hosea to the relationship