of a covenant. "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
princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the
priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts
of the calf; I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and
into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall
be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the
earth."[138] The practice of so dividing the victim was evidently in
accordance with the operation performed by Abraham, when the Lord made
a covenant with him.[139] Indeed, in the record given of that
transaction, a different term ([Hebrew: bathor]) is used to denote the
performance of the division, but this the more establishes its fact. And
though God's covenant is before spoken of as having been established,
and though Noah, on the occasion of his adhering to that covenant
immediately after the flood, offered sacrifice,[140] yet, it is in the
account given of that with Abraham, and as if the practice of cutting
the victim in twain had originated when it was entered into, that the
phrase connecting the two terms or their modifications is first used.
Thereafter, however, in reference to every variety of solemn Covenant
engagements, the phrase is adopted. It is employed to describe the
entering into covenant of men with men before the Lord, and consequently
of both parties with him. The cases of David and the elders of Israel at
Hebron,[141] and of Jehoash and his people,[142] afford instances.
Another such case is found in the account of the league between Joshua
and the princes of the congregation, and the Gibeonites.[143] In the
commands forbidding Israel to enter into covenant with the Canaanites,
or their gods, the phrase is used.[144] It is used when men are
represented as making a covenant with God. The record of that of Israel,
under Ezra, gives an illustration.[145] And it is the form of expression
by which the Lord himself is represented as entering into covenant with
men. The records of the transactions at Sinai and Moab, of his covenant
with David, and of his purposes to enter into covenant with his people,
as those appear in his precious word of promise, as well as other
passages, contain it. Yea, sometimes even where that word of the phr