What Does Jeremiah 34:18 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse uses the same verb for violating the covenant and passing between the calf’s severed halves, making the breach part of the oath’s own enactment.
THE MEANING
The verse holds broken words beside the visible sign of the oath: the men cross the covenant they enacted, and God gives them over to its consequence. The cut calf makes the promise’s weight visible even as its words go unperformed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that breaking the words erases the oath’s weight and consequence.
THE ROOT
הָעֹבְרִים
ha'ovrim
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
Cross over, pass through.
“transgressed” in this verse is ha'ovrim. The verse uses this root first for the men who transgress the covenant and again for their passage between the calf’s parts. The same crossing names both the breach and the oath’s enacted sign.
ALSO GROWS
ha'ovrim: Those who cross over or transgress.
הָעֹבְרִים
This is the verse’s word for the men who violate the covenant.
vayya'avru: And they passed over or through.
וַיַּעַבְרוּ
This names the men’s passage between the calf’s parts, repeating the root used for their transgression.
כָּרְתוּ
karatu
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
Cut, sever.
“cut” in this verse is karatu. The Hebrew uses the same verb for making the covenant and cutting the calf in two. The covenant’s words and the divided animal are joined by the act of cutting, giving the oath a visible form.
ALSO GROWS
karatu: They cut; in the covenant phrase, they made a covenant.
כָּרְתוּ
The same form describes the covenant they made and the calf they divided.
hikrit: He cut off or severed.
הִכְרִית
This branch keeps the root’s force of separation visible in the calf cut into parts.
THE PATTERN
A covenant’s words take visible form in an enacted sign that also carries the covenant’s consequence.
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.Genesis uses the root עבר for the lamp’s passing between the divided pieces; Jeremiah uses it for both transgressing the covenant and passing between the calf’s halves. The repeated verb joins crossing the covenant boundary to the passage that enacts the oath.
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