H1335 H1335
parts, pieces—halves of animals cut for covenant-making rituals
This noun refers to the pieces or halves of animals cut apart in ancient covenant-making ceremonies. In Genesis 15:10, Abraham cuts animals 'in pieces' (literally 'in its halves'), and in Jeremiah 34:18-19, violators of covenant are threatened with the fate of the calf whose parts they walked between. The practice involved cutting animals in two and passing between the pieces, symbolically invoking a curse upon covenant-breakers. The word may also appear in Song of Songs 2:17 as 'mountains of Bether' (cleft mountains), though this is disputed.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Pieces or halves of animals divided in covenant rituals. Genesis 15:10 uses the singular ('his piece') for Abraham's ritual, while Jeremiah 34:18-19 uses plural forms ('parts of the calf') for the violated covenant. Cross-linguistic evidence shows: English 'his piece/parts of,' Spanish 'mitad (half)/partes de,' French 'son pièce/[betri],' German 'Stück/[betri].' The Hebrew root suggests cutting or severing. Some languages leave the Jeremiah occurrences untransliterated, perhaps due to the ritual's strangeness or textual difficulty. This is technical vocabulary for covenant-making ceremonies. 3×
AR["شِقِّهِ", "قِطَعِ", "قِطَعِهِ"]·ben["অংশ-তার", "ভাগের", "ভাগের-এর"]·DE["Stück", "[בתרי]", "[בתריו]"]·EN["his-piece", "its-parts", "parts-of"]·FR["[בתרי]", "[בתריו]", "son-pièce"]·heb["בתרו-ו", "בתרי", "בתריו"]·HI["उस्क-तुकद", "टुकड़ों", "टुकड़ों-उसके"]·ID["belahannya", "potongan-potongan", "potongan-potongannya"]·IT["[בתרי]", "[בתריו]", "suo-piece"]·jav["bagian-ipun", "pérangan-pérangan-", "pérangan-péranganipun"]·KO["그-조각들의", "그것의-조각을", "조각들"]·PT["metade-dele", "partes-de", "partes-dele"]·RU["часть-его", "частями", "частями-его"]·ES["mitad-de-él", "partes-de", "partes-de-él"]·SW["kipande-chake", "vipande-vya", "vipande-vyake"]·TR["parçalarının", "parçalarının-onun", "parçayı"]·urd["ٹکڑا-اُس-کا", "ٹکڑوں", "ٹکڑوں-کے-اُس-کے"]
Related Senses
H3605 1. all, every, whole (5352×)H0259 1. one (cardinal numeral) (940×)H8147 1. cardinal number two (666×)G3956 1. all (collective plural) (616×)H3967 1. cardinal numeral hundred (550×)H1419a 1. great, large (general quality) (486×)H7969 1. cardinal number three (431×)H0505 1. cardinal number thousand (427×)H7651 1. seven (cardinal number) (393×)G1520 1. cardinal number one (339×)H6240 1. ten (cardinal number) (334×)H6242 1. twenty (cardinal number) (315×)H2568 1. cardinal number five (309×)H0702 1. four (cardinal number) (277×)G3956 2. every, each (distributive) (227×)H8337 1. six (cardinal number) (215×)G3956 3. all things, everything (substantive) (211×)G3956 4. (187×)H6235 1. ten (177×)G3173 1. great in size or extent (176×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† [בֶ֫תֶר] n.m. Gn 15:10 part, piece. 1. בִּתְרוֹ Gn 15:10; pl. sf. בְּתָרָיו Je 34:18, בִּתְרֵי הָעֵגֶל Je 34:19; always of halves of animals cut in two in making covenants. 2. הָרֵי בָּ֑תֶר Ct 2:17 mountains of cutting, i.e. cleft mountains 𝔊 Thes al.; or of separation (between us) Ew al.; according to We Prol. 415, Eng. Tr. 391 ב׳ = malobathron.—Bether as n.pr. AV RV.