overly pessimistic about the intervention of God in the affairs of his people (v. 17) but also that when that intervention takes place, it will not be what they expect (3:1–5). The prevailing attitude is captured by two characteristic statements, which I presume are actually the prophet’s compositions intended to convey the gist of the sorts of things that people were often saying. In the same way that 1:4 “quoted” the Edomites, who surely didn’t speak with a single voice, the two sayings “quoted”