Jeremiah 34:18-20

The Lord would give all the people who had broken the covenant, regardless of their social position, into the hand of their enemy. They would die without the privilege of a burial; birds and beasts would consume their carcasses (cf. Jeremiah 7:33; Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 19:7; Deuteronomy 28:26). They had used a typical covenant-making ritual. They had cut a young calf in two and the parties of the covenant passed between the halves (cf. Genesis 15:10; Genesis 15:17).

"The fate of the animal was a picture of the fate that would befall them if they broke the covenant. The rite has its parallel in the covenant ceremonies of the ancient Near East in which a beast was cut in pieces to serve as a symbol of the judgment that would befall the covenant-breaker." [Note: Thompson, p. 613. Cf. Genesis 15:12-21.]

This judgment would be the fate of the people (Jeremiah 34:20).