nation’. This title expresses Israel’s uniqueness, in the eyes of Yhwh, among all other peoples of the earth. It describes an identity which is to become both a reality when the covenant is made, and a priority, according to which Israel is required to live. This rather ambivalent state, whereby Israel is declared holy yet equally called to be holy, I describe as ‘the call to holiness’. ‘Holy’ describes a status and a standard and a function. The distinctiveness of Israel in regard to other nations,