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Covenant |
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We
read often in the Tanakh about covenants, alliances and pledges, between
men, between nations and between man and Elohiym. I thought it might be
good to look into these types of covenants. The
word in Brown Driver Briggs Concordance is defined thusly: 1285
beriyth- 1)
covenant, alliance, pledge a) between men 1)
a treaty, an alliance, a league (man to man) 2)
a constitution, an ordinance (monarch to subjects) 3)
an agreement, a pledge (man to man) 4)
an alliance (used of friendship) 5)
an alliance (used of marriage) b)
between God and man 1)
an alliance (used of friendship) 2)
a covenant (divine ordinance with signs or pledges) 11
Thus Shlomoh finished the house of YHWH, and the king's house:
and all that came into Shlomoh's heart to make in the house of YHWH, and
in his own house he prospered. 12
And YHWH appeared to Shlomoh by night and said to him, I have
heard your prayer and have chosen this place to myself for a house of
sacrifice. 13
If I shut up the heavens so there be no rain or if I command the
locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among My people; 14
If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves,
pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear
from the heavens and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15
Now My eyes shall be open, and My ears will be attentive to the
prayer that is made in this place. 16
For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that My Name may
be there forever, and My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. 17
And as for you, if you will walk before Me, as David your father
walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you and shall
observe My statutes and My judgments; 18
Then will I establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I
have covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘There shall never
fail to be a man to be ruler in 19
But if you turn away, and forsake My statutes and My
commandments, which I have set before you and shall go and serve other
gods, and worship them; 20
Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of My land which I
have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for My Name, I
will cast out of My sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword
among all nations. 21
And this house which is high, shall be an astonishment to every
one that passes by it; so that he shall say, Why has YHWH done thus to
this land and to this house? 22
And it shall be answered, Because they turned away from YHWH, the
Elohiym of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the 18
But with you I will establish My covenant and you shall come into
the ark, you, your sons, your wife and your daughters-in law with you. 8
And Elohiym spoke to Noach and to his sons with him, saying, 9
And I, behold, I establish My covenant with you, and with your
seed after you;
3
And Avram said, Behold, You have given no seed to me: and look,
one born in my house is my heir. 4
And the word of YHWH came to him saying, This one shall not be
your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own loins shall be
your heir. 5
And He brought him outside and said, Look toward the heavens and
count the stars if you are able to number them and He said to him, so
shall your seed be. 6
And Avram believed YHWH and He counted it to him for
righteousness. 7
And He said to him, I am YHWH that brought you out of 8
And he said, Almighty YHWH, how shall I know that I shall inherit
it? 9
And He said to Avram, Take a heifer of three years old, a she
goat of three years old, a ram of three years old, a turtledove and a
young pigeon. 10
And he took all these, divided them in the middle and laid each
piece one against another: but the birds he did not divide. 11
And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Avram drove them
away. 12
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Avram;
and look, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. 13
And He said to Avram, Know in assurance that your seed shall be a
stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them; and they
shall afflict them four hundred years; 14
And also that nation, whom they shall serve, I will judge and
afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15
And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in
a good old age. 16
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for
the iniquity of the Emoriy (Amorites) is not yet. 17
And it happened, that when the sun went down and it was dark,
behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those
pieces. 18
in the same day YHWH made a covenant with Avram, saying, unto
your seed I have given this land, from the 1
Now when Avram was ninety-nine years old, YHWH appeared to Avram
and said to him, "I am El Shaddai; walk before Me and be blameless. 2
"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I
will multiply you exceedingly." 3
And Avram fell on his face and Elohiym talked with him, saying, 4
"As for Me, look, My covenant is with you and you shall be
the father of a multitude of nations. 5
"No longer shall your name be called Avram, but your name
shall be Avraham; for I will make you the father of a multitude of
nations. 10
"This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and
you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be
circumcised. 11
"And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin;
and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12
"And every male among you who is eight days old shall be
circumcised throughout your generations, a {servant} who is born in the
house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your
descendants. 13
"A {servant} who is born in your house or who is bought with
your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in
your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14
"But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the
flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people;
he has broken My covenant." Shemot
(Exod) 2:23-25 24
And Elohiym heard their groaning, and Elohiym remembered His
covenant with Avraham, with Yitschaq (Isaac), and with (Jacob) Ya'acov. 25
And Elohiym looked upon the children of 2
And Elohiym spoke to Moshe, and said to him, I am YHWH: 4
And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them
the 5
And I have also heard the groaning of the children of 5
Now therefore, if you will indeed, obey My voice and keep My
covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all people
for all the earth is Mine: 6
And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words which you shall speak to the children of 31
And I will set your bounds from the 32
You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. 33
They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against
Me: for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you. 6
And Moshe took half of the blood, put it in basins and half of
the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the
hearing of the people: and they said, All that YHWH has said, we will do
and be obedient. 8
And Moshe took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people and
said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which YHWH has made
with you concerning all these words. 30
And Moshe took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood
which was upon the altar and sprinkled it upon Aharon, his garments,
upon his sons and upon his sons' garments Moshe sanctified Aharon, his
garments, his sons and his sons' garments as well. 21
And if you walk contrary to Me and will not carefully listen and
obey Me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to
your sins. 22
I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of
your children, destroy your cattle, make you few in number and your
highways shall be desolate. 23
And if you will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will
walk contrary to Me; 24
Then will I also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet
seven times for your sins. 40
If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their
fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that
also they have walked contrary to Me; 41
And that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought
them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts
be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 43
The land also shall be left by them, to enjoy her Sabbaths, while
she lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment
of their rebellion: because, they despised My judgments, and because
they abhorred My statutes.
13
And every gift of your meat offering you shall season with salt;
neither shall you allow the salt of the covenant of your Elohiym to be
lacking from your meat offering: with all your offerings you shall offer
salt. 5
"Do you not know that YHWH, Elohiym of
Phinehas receives the ‘covenant of peace’ when he killed the
man and woman in lewd acts at the very door of the congregation. How
zealous should we be?
12
Therefore say to him, “Behold, I give to you My covenant of
peace:” 13
And he and his seed after him shall have it, even the covenant of
an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his Elohiym, and
made an atonement for the children of 31
"Behold, the days are coming," declares YHWH,
"when I will make a new covenant with the house of 32
not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day
I took them by the hand to bring them out of the 33
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house
of 34
"And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and
each man his brother, saying, 'Know YHWH,' for they shall all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares YHWH,
"for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember
no more." Basically
we are told how the children of 17
And it shall be, that whoever will not come up of all the
families of the earth to Yerushalayim to worship HaMelekh, YHWH
Tsava’ot, upon them shall be no rain. 18
And if the family of Mitzrayim (Egypt) do not go up, and do not
come, they that have no rain; then there shall be the plague, wherewith
YHWH will strike down the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of
tabernacles. 19
This shall be the punishment of Mitzrayim ( 20
In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS
UNTO YHWH; and the pots in the YHWH's house shall be like the bowls
before the altar. 21
Yea, every pot in Yerushalayim and in Yahudah shall be holiness
to YHWH Tsava’ot : and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of
them, and cook in them and in that day there shall be no more the
Kena’aniy (Canaanite) in the house of YHWH Tsava’ot. For
further study COVENANT
berit ^1285^, "covenant; league; confederacy." This
word is most probably derived from an Akkadian root meaning "to
fetter"; it has parallels in Hittite, Egyptian, Assyrian, and
Aramaic. Berit is used over 280 times and in all parts of the Old
Testament. The first occurrence of the word is in <Gen. 6:18>:
"But with thee [Noah] will I establish my covenant."
The KJV translates berit fifteen times as "league":
"...now therefore make ye a league with us" <Josh. 9:6>.
These are all cases of political agreement within
The KJV translates berit as "covenant" 260 times. The
word is used of "agreements between men," as Abraham and
Abimelech <Gen. 21:32>: "Thus they made a covenant at Beer-sheba...."
David and Jonathan made a "covenant" of mutual protection that
would be binding on David's descendants forever <1 Sam. 18:3; 20:8,
16-18,42>. In these cases, there was "mutual agreement confirmed
by oath in the name of the Lord." Sometimes there were also
material pledges <Gen. 21:28-31>.
Ahab defeated the Syrians: "So he made a covenant with [Ben-hadad],
and sent him away" <1 Kings 20:34>. The king of
In
The great majority of occurrences of berit are of God's
"covenants" with men, as in <Gen. 6:18> above. The verbs
used are important: "I will establish my covenant" <Gen.
6:18>-- literally, "cause to stand" or "confirm."
"I will make my covenant" <Gen. 17:2>, RSV. "He
declared to you his covenant" <Deut. 4:13>. "My covenant
which I commanded them..." <Josh. 7:11>. "I have
remembered my covenant. Wherefore... I will bring you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians" <Exod. 6:5-6>. God will not reject
"Covenant" is parallel or equivalent to the Hebrew
words dabar ("word"), hoq ("statute"), piqqud
("precepts"-- Ps. 103:18>, NASB), `edah
("testimony"-- Ps. 25:10>), torah ("law"-- Ps.
78:10>), and checed ("lovingkindness"-- Deut. 7:9>, NASB).
These words emphasize the authority and grace of God in making and
keeping the "covenant," and the specific responsibility of man
under the covenant. The words of the "covenant" were written
in a book <Exod. 24:4, 7; Deut. 31:24-26> and on stone tablets
<Exod. 34:28>.
Men "enter into" <Deut. 29:12> or
"join" <Jer. 50:5> God's "covenant." They are
to obey <Gen. 12:4> and "observe carefully" all the
commandments of the "covenant" <Deut. 4:6>. But above
all, the "covenant" calls
"...If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people... and ye
shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" <Exod.
19:5-6>. "All the commandments... shall ye observe to do, that
ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord
sware unto your fathers" <Deut. 8:1>. In the
"covenant," man's response contributes to covenant
fulfillment; yet man's action is not causative. God's grace always goes
before and produces man's response.
Occasionally,
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