The covenant and the land

“When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.” “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,” in the Hebrew “cut a covenant,” giving the land “from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates.” Skinner holds that the rite is “a symbolic act in which the Almighty binds Himself by the inviolable ceremonial”, and that “Yahwe alone passes (symbolically) between the pieces, because He alone contracts obligation.” Driver writes of the parties “each thereby symbolizing that, in case he breaks the terms agreed to, he is willing to be parted asunder in like manner.” Keil writes, “But there is no sure ground in Jer. xxxiv. 18 sqq. for thus interpreting the ancient custom.” and that “From the nature of this covenant, it followed, however, that God alone went through the pieces in a symbolical representation of Himself, and not Abram also.” Those views are attributed; no ruling is given. The custom in general, and the question of the river, are summarized in the commentary and treated as background in The cut-animal rite and the river of Egypt: background in Genesis 15; no ancient Near Eastern text is cited, and no dependence is claimed. Jeremiah’s calf is quoted as Scripture in Gen 15:17 → Jer 34:18–19. The grant continues the land promise of 13:14–17, pointed to in Gen 15:18 → Gen 13:14–17 and The land promise after Lot departs, not taken up again. See The firepot and torch, the cut covenant and the borders.