It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit (Ho. 14:8 [Hebrew 9], RSV). At issue was the all-sufficiency of Yahweh, with the question perhaps put this way: Where does life, in all its richness and fullness, come from? Does it come from Yahweh alone, or from Yahweh plus others? If it comes from Yahweh alone, then one will look obediently to him alone for that life. But if it comes from Yahweh plus others, then one will spread one’s allegiance around,
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