bring the promise to Abraham to fulfilment. The divinely-designated role Israel was to play was “You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. The ‘you’ is emphatic: ‘you yourselves’, ‘you alone’. Older interpreters frequently took this to be a reference to the unique theocratic constitution that was going to be given to Israel. The LORD would be their King and the priests would be his officials in administering his earthly realm. In this way the people would in their political constitution