Hebrew word · H1334
בָּתַר
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to cut up
To cut in two, cut through, divide by severing. The verb appears only in this verse, once in its intensive form ('cut to pieces, hack through') and once in its simple form ('cut in two').
Appears 2 times in 1 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to cut in two
1a) (Qal) to cut in two
1b) (Piel) to cut in two
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Genesis 15:10
- Range of meaning
To cut in two, cut through, divide by severing. The verb appears only in this verse, once in its intensive form ('cut to pieces, hack through') and once in its simple form ('cut in two').
- Against the English
KJV 'divided' and YLT 'separateth' can sound like sorting or sharing out. Modern versions ('cut in two', 'split', 'cut in half') keep the violence of the act.
- How it drifted
In older English 'divide' could mean physical cutting, but today it more often suggests distributing or separating into groups.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Biblical Hebrew uses it only here. A related root in Arabic (batara) means 'to cut off'. The same root gives the noun beter ('piece'), used here and in Jeremiah 34:18–19. In the Greek Septuagint the verb is diaireō ('divide'); the Latin Vulgate has divisit ('he divided').
Where it appears
Genesis · 2
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Genesis 15:10 וַיְבַתֵּ֤ר בָתָֽר׃ and he cut in pieces, he cut in two
So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.
Here: An intensive form of a very rare verb. It means hacking straight through a carcass into separate halves, not just making a cut. God never told Abram to do this. Abram seems to know what the animals are for without being told.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.