peoples, the Hebrews included, could get themselves into a tangle of scepticism about what their God or gods were up to—we need only think of Ecclesiastes and his “All is vanity”. Or they could, like Job, attack deity bitterly for what they thought was its unfairness and cruelty. But it was not open to either Job or Ecclesiastes—as it is unfortunately all too open to us—to doubt that deity existed. The peoples of antiquity did not want to have the choice of deciding to put God first which we think