18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,

The following extract will throw some light on this passage:

—"At the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, during the reign of Zedekiah, many of the higher and more opulent classes among the Jews who, in opposition to the law of Moses, had reduced their country men and country women to domestic slavery, set them at liberty, and confirmed this act of justice by a solemn covenant, celebrated in the manner above mentioned.

This procedure was, however, the result, not of principle, but of fear; and hence, on the subsequent retirement of the Babylonish army from the city, they basely broke their covenant, and reduced to their former slavery the persons whom they had recently emancipated. Such conduct was of course highly offensive to God, who threatened them in consequence, through the prophet Jeremiah, with the severest judgments."—(Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ; by William Stroud, M.D., p. 474.)

This statement will be found to be borne out by the previous part of the chapter.—(Jer. 34.) We find, too, that the prophet predicts their punishment in language consistent with the significance of the ordinary custom already mentioned, for in verse 20 he says,

"Their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth."

But while this custom existed amongst the Jews, it was by no means confined to them; it prevailed amongst nearly all heathen nations. This will appear by the following quotation from Dr. Adam Clarke, to whom we are indebted for much valuable information on the subject:

—"St. Cyril, in his work against Julian, shows that passing between the divided parts of a victim was used also among the Chaldeans and other people. As the sacrifice was required to make an atonement to God, so the death of the animal was necessary to signify to the contracting parties the punishment to which they expose themselves should they prove unfaithful.

Livy preserves the form of the imprecation used on such occasions, in the account he gives of the league made between the Romans and Albans. When the Romans were about to enter into some solemn league or covenant, they sacrificed a hog; and on the above occasion, the priest, or pater patratus, before he slew the animal, stood, and thus invoked Jupiter: 'Hear, O Jupiter! should be Romans in public counsel, through any evil device, first transgress these laws, in that same day, O Jupiter, thus smite the Roman people, as I shall at this time smite this hog; and smite them with a severity proportioned to the greatness of Thy power and might!"—(Livii Hist., lib. i., chap. 24)."

Dr. Clarke in another place says:

—"Covenant, from con, together, and venio, I come, signifies an agreement, contract, or compact, between two parties, by which both are mutually bound to do certain things, on certain conditions and penalties. It answers to the Hebrew berith, which often signifies not only the covenant or agreement, but also the sacrifice which was slain on the occasion, by the blood of which the covenant was ratified; and the contracting parties professed to subject themselves to such a death as that of the victim, in case of violating their engagements.

An oath of this kind, on slaying the covenant sacrifice, was usual in ancient times: so in Homer, when a covenant was made between the Greeks and the Trojans, and the throats of lambs were cut and their blood poured out, the following form of adjuration was used by the contracting parties:—

'All glorious Jove, and ye, the powers of heaven!

Whoso shall violate this contract first,

So be their blood, their children's and their own,

Poured out, as this libation, on the ground:

And let their wives bring forth to other men!'

(Iliad, l. iii., v. 298–301)."

The Jews also would probably use a particular form of oath on such occasions, but it does not appear to have been preserved.

The fact that this custom existed outside the Jewish nation is further shown by the request of the Gibeonites who went to Joshua and said,

"Make ye a league with us (Josh. 9:6); literally, "Cut (or divide) the covenant-sacrifice with us."

We find other expressions kindred to this, which, apart from a knowledge of the custom, would be inexplicable, but which with it are quite intelligible: e.g., Gen. 15:18 is, literally, "The Lord cut a covenant;" and Deut. 29:12, "That thou shouldst pass through the covenant;" and the expressions—smiting a covenant, cleaving a covenant, cutting a covenant, were, amongst the Romans, equivalent to making a covenant, because in making a covenant by sacrifice, they smote the animal to kill it, and then cut it in two.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, Oct 1874