Jeremiah 34:18

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,

Ver. 18. That have transgressed my covenant.] His covenant he calleth it by a weighty emphasis, because about a business by him commanded, and wherein he was engaged, not as a bare spectator, but as a severe avenger of their perjury.

When they cut the calf in twain.] To show the correspondence of wills whereunto the contractors did bind themselves, and the punishment of dissection or other violent death whereunto they submitted themselves, in case they broke promise. The rise of this rite in covenanting, see Genesis 15:9,10; Genesis 15:17. The heathens a used the like ceremony, b as is to be seen in Homer, Cicero, Livy, Virgil:

“ Et caesa iungebant faedera porea. ”

The Romans cut a sow in twain; and when it was divided, the Faeciales or heralds gave one half to one party, and the other half to the other, and said, So God divide you asunder if you break this covenant; and let God do this so much the more as he is more able.

a Hom. Il., lib. iii; Tul. de Invent.; Liv., lib. i.; Virg. Aeneid, 8.

b Hinc faedus a faedo animali diviso.