בֶּ֫תֶר

From the study of Jeremiah 34:18

Range of meaning

A piece or half of something cut apart. The verb bātar, 'cut in two', is used only in Genesis 15:10. The noun appears in Genesis 15:10 and Jeremiah 34:18–19. Song 2:17 has a related 'mountains of Bether', probably meaning 'cleft' or 'divided' mountains.

Against the English

'Parts' (KJV, WEB) is accurate but flat. 'Pieces' or 'halves' gives the better picture: two matching halves laid out facing each other with a path between them.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 15:9–17: Abram cuts a heifer, a goat and a ram in half (wayyəbattēr), lays each half opposite its partner (bitrô), and a smoking fire-pot and flaming torch, symbols of God's presence, pass between the pieces. These are the only places the word occurs.

From the study of Jeremiah 34:19

Range of meaning

A piece or half of something cut in two, especially an animal divided down the middle for a covenant rite. The related verb bātar means 'to cut in two' (Gen 15:10). Song 2:17 'mountains of beter' may mean 'divided' or 'cleft' mountains, or it may be a place name.

Against the English

'Pieces' (BSB, YLT) and 'parts' (KJV, WEB, ESV) are both accurate. Neither quite says that it was halves, laid on either side of a path.

Used elsewhere in the period

Outside Song 2:17 it occurs only in Genesis 15:10 and Jeremiah 34:18–19. This tight link makes Jeremiah's scene a deliberate counterpart to Abraham's: there God alone walked the path and bound Himself; here Judah's leaders walked it and broke faith. The Aramaic treaty of Sefire (8th century BC) has the same ritual logic: 'Just as this calf is cut in two, so may Matiʿel be cut in two, and may his nobles be cut in two.' A Neo-Assyrian treaty with the same ruler says of a slaughtered lamb, 'this head is not the head of a lamb, it is the head of Matiʿilu, the head of his sons, his officials and the people of his land.'

From the study of Genesis 15:10

Range of meaning

Piece, part, half of a cut carcass. Possibly also a cleft or ravine ('mountains of bether', Song of Songs 2:17, though that phrase may be a place name or mean 'cleft mountains').

Against the English

English 'piece' or 'half' is accurate. What English cannot show is that this is the same root as the verb, so in Hebrew the cutting and the cut halves sound alike.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah 34:18–19 is the key parallel. Judah's leaders had 'cut the calf in two and passed between its parts (betaraw)' when they swore a covenant to free their slaves. When they broke the oath, God declared he would make them like that calf. The rite was still known and still binding in the early 6th century BC.