from what has preceded or whether it is a later redactional development, emphasizing the status of the chosen community. If the latter view is taken, v. 21 would provide a similar development. But it is perhaps more satisfactory to take vv. 16 and 17 together as setting out the contrasting fates of “all the nations” and “those that escape.” The latter phrase can have as its primary thrust the sense of a narrow escape, with the main emphasis on the greatness of the calamity; that sense seems to be