point as quite a specific one: it was the very possession of the Torah which engendered the spirit of idolatry. The nation, in other words, preferred to view the law as God’s definitive answer to sin, rather than see it as only a means to an end, to prepare Israel for the “coming one” (v. 14), whose act of obedience would put an end to sin forever. For her “sin” has abounded all the more because of her misunderstanding and misapplication of the Torah. It is precisely in this connection that v. 21