He was Jehovah, the hard, vindictive, bloodthirsty God of only a single race, the Hebrew race. He had to be hard, vindictive, and bloodthirsty because He was passing through difficult times, was warring with the Amalekites, the Midianites, and the desert. He had to conquer them—by suffering, intriguing, killing—and save Himself. This arid, treeless, inhuman ravine we were traversing had been Jehovah’s fearsome sheath. Through here He had passed, bellowing.
