59. Breaking the covenant. Israel had broken the covenant made at Sinai, in which God offered the people the privilege of being His “peculiar treasure” (Ex. 19:5). They were to be the depositaries of the sacred oracles and were to spread abroad the knowledge of God’s law, first through a demonstration of the truth in their lives, and second through active missionary propaganda. In both of these they hopelessly failed. See 30-33.