• The word, occurring only here, is very obscure ; LXX 'chosen,' so Vulg. and virtually Targ. ; Aq. AvvijAAai*, e#-
UOVENAXT
COVENANT
313
and that thon wilt walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and commandments and iud<;ments, and hearken unto his voice. And J" has this day avouched thee that thou shalt be his particular people . . . and thot he will make thee hiyh above all nations . . . and that thou slialt be an holy people unto J' thy God.' It is obvious that the essential tiling in the people's undertaking is tliat J" shall be their (!od, and the eiisential part of His undertaking is that they shall be His peculiar people (cf. Ex 19°) ; all else is but the exposition or analysis of what these terms imijly. Like the prophets, Dt greatly insists on the duties of the people, tiiough with surprising inwardness it sums up all duties in love to J" their God (6' 10'^). Like the prophets also, it fills up the formal outline of the dinne covenant (On 15) with contents from the nature of God : J" ' loved thy fathers ' (4"), and this love continues to their descendants (7*). The ' covenant and the grace ' ("i:n) are coupled ; the covenant was an expression of grace (7'-'). Dt also lays great emphasis on the uniformity of the divine mind and the continuity of His operations. It was because He loved the fathers that He ' chose ' their seed, the people Israel ; this ' choice ' meaning, not election beforehand, but the concrete act of separ- ating Israel to Himself from among the nations at the Exodus (4" 7' 10"). J" ' keepeth covenant,' though this again is explained from His nature —'He is the faithful God' (7"'=). All Israel's blessings, its deliverance from Egypt, entrance to Canaan, and prosperity there, are but the first covenant (Gn 15) unfolding itself — ' to uphold His covenant which he sware unto thy fathers ' (8'* 9* 10"). And this first covenant, as it has operated in the past and operates now, will continue opera- tive in the future : Israel may be scattered among the nations, but J" will not forget His covenant, for He is merciful (4"). The term Krith is used in IH for the terms or contents of the covenant, e.g. the Decalogue or any of its laws (4^ 17'- ') ; so Dt speaks of the ' tables of the covenant,' ' the ark of tlie covenant,' cf. 1 K 8-' 'the ark wherein is the covenant of the Lord.' — The prophets Jer. and Ezk. follow Dt in their use of the term covenant, though they draw no distinction between the covenant at Horfeb and that in the plains of Moab (Jer 11'- *• ' 3131 -jn. a Ezk igs. W). n jg curious that in his prophecies anterior to the promulgation of Dt (ch. 1-6) Jer., like other prophets, does not make use of the covenant idea (cf., however, 3"). See § iv.
4. The Priests' Code. — P is a historical account of the rise and completion of Israel's sacra, its religious institutions and rites. When it was written, these sacred institutions had run through tlieir full development, and could be described in their historical sucees-sion, cij. the law in regard to blood (Gn 9), the law of circumcision (Gn 17), tlie tabernacle as the dwelling-place of God among His people (Ex 25 fi'.), and the like. In this history P records two covenants — that with Noah (Gn 9) and that with Abraham (Gn 17). The former was a covenant with man and all creation, consisting of a promise or oath (Is .'54'') on God's side that He vould no more destroy the world with a flood, and laying on men the obligation of abstaining from human bloodshed and the eating of blood. It is very much a question of words whether tliis covenant was two-sided. Of course being made with mankind and all creation, it was an absolute
changed, conncctinjc perhaps with TO'n (Jer 2"), Aa T.l' plainly Btatcfl what the people underuke, and v. is wlmt J" undertal<efl, the renderin(f, ' thou iinat nnnxed J" to imy,' couid onlv mean that the people hy tlieir words or demeanour hiui eauHcd J" to undenitan<l ond rejieat tliuir pleilt^es In rejranl to tliin, while He hud raiiHed or enahli'd them to reiH'at His pled^'eB to them — a Btranirely roundabout form of thouu'ht. The poMiaKe ia dittlcult in other'ways, the exact l>*«rin(f of thetuhoriimat«clauaea heiuf; tn lonie cases olMcure. See Avouou. VOL. I. — Kt
promise on God's part in regard to the human race and the world ; but in regard to individuals the Penalty of violating it was death (9°- '), and in later law even a beast that shed human blood was to be slain (Ex 21^). This covenant was a law for mankind (Is 24'), and in later times abstinence from blood was imposed on proselytes, and even on Gentiles in the early Church (Ac lo'-"*). The covenant of Noah is not referred to in J E, but Is 54* is proof that knowled^'e of it was current before the date usually assigned to P. It is