Jeremiah 34:18 - Exposition

When they out the calf in twain, etc. This clause should be translated differently, and placed, for clearness, in a parenthesis ( the calf which they cut in twain, and between the parts of which they passed ) . The division of the calf might, in fact, be called in Hebrew either "the covenant" or "the token of the covenant" (comp. Genesis 17:10 , Genesis 17:11 ). It was a solemn assurance that he who should transgress God's Law should share the same fate as the victim. The same idea seems to have dictated the Hebrew phrase, "to cut a covenant," and the Greek and Latin equivalents ( ὅρκια τέμνειν : foedus icere ) ; comp. the parallel narrative in Genesis 15:10 .