Parashat Ki Tissa culminates in a stirring—and enormously influential—proclamation of God’s mercy. The appropriate response to this rousing affirmation of God’s grace and benevolence would seem to be praise and thanksgiving. But for one embittered biblical prophet, these words elicit pain, desperation, and indignation instead. To understand why is to learn a powerful lesson about the vastness of God’s love—and about our own dogged but ill-fated attempts to cut God down to size.