his suffering, says the psalmist, “my relatives [qĕrôbay] stand at a distance.”5 Texts that speak of treaty violation use similar idioms. In Jer 2:5, Israel’s ancestors are described as going far (rḥq) from Yhwh when they reject him and worship other gods: What wrong did your ancestors find in me, That they went far from me, Going after that which is empty and becoming empty? Obadiah 1:11 castigates the Edomites, Judah’s allies, for standing at a distance (ʿāmad minneged) when Jerusalem fell. Lamentations