This was a very ancient method of making a covenant. The two contracting parties slaughtered a victim, cut the body in two, and passed between the severed parts. Some writers hold that the design was to express a wish that, if the covenant should be broken, the same fate might befall the party violating it which had befallen the slain beast. Others think that it was intended to represent, that as the two divided parts belonged to one animal, so the two parties making the covenant were of one mind so far as the subject of the covenant was concerned. It is thought probable that the latter was the original design of the custom, and that the former notion was added to the meaning subsequently, or substituted for it when the original intention was forgotten. This old custom is referred to in the very expression which was used by the Hebrews to represent the making of a covenant. The phrase “make a covenant,” which is so often used in the Old Testament, is literally, “to cut a covenant” (karath berith).
This ceremony was used when Jehovah made a covenant with Abram. See Genesis 15:10-1110And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not. 11And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. (Genesis 15:10‑11). “Ephraem Syrus observes, that God condescended to follow the custom of the Chaldeans, that he might in the most solemn manner confirm his oath to Abram the Chaldean” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary in loco). The custom was widespread among ancient nations, and is often referred to by classical writers. There are traces of it even in modern times. Pitts, after narrating some of the superstitious customs of the Algerine pirates when a storm overtakes them at sea, continues: “If they find no succor from their before—mentionedrites and superstitions, but that the danger rather increases, then they go to sacrificing of a sheep, (or two or three upon occasion, as they think needful,) which is done after this manner: having cut off the head with a knife, they immediately take out the entrails, and throw them and the head overboard; and then with all the tipped they can (without skinning) they cut the body into two parts by the middle, and throw one part over the right side of the ship and the other over the left, into the sea, as a kind of propitiation” (Religion and Manners of the Mahometans, chap. 2).