to remain intact. In other words, even if humanity fails to fulfil these expectations (a reality which the text clearly envisages, cf. 8:21b), God will not renege on his guarantees. At the end of the day, the permanence of the covenant, and its accompanying promises, is based on the unconditional commitment of God to the human and nonhuman creation. In this regard, Wenham’s paraphrase of Westermann’s comment is insightful: Underlying the history of nature and the history of mankind is an unconditional