both sea and land, and the distance rendered it very expensive.10 It was an immense effort, this importation of frankincense; and why?—Yahweh wants to know. As to the companion phrase “sweet cane,” this commodity was also used in the cult, in the holy anointing oil (Exod 30:23*), and was evidently imported from India.11 The use of “afar” (מֶרְחָק) here is in contrast to the use in 5:15*: there Yahweh uses an exotic nation to punish his own people, while here his people use exotic goods in an