Why will the Lord make those who broke the covenant like the “calf they cut in two and passed between the parts”?

The Lord says that the people who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, will face the consequences of their betrayal. Notice again the seriousness of what they have done. This covenant was not just made with Zedekiah; it was made with the Lord. They have betrayed the Lord. One act of covenant disobedience means the whole covenant relationship has been betrayed. The people who have acted like this are the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land. In other words, this is a comprehensive failure by the whole nation, from the religious and political leaders, right down to the people themselves. The Lord will therefore make them like the calf they cut in two parts and passed between its parts. It would seem that Zedekiah conducted a ceremony when he made the covenant with the people of Jerusalem. The ceremony involved cutting a calf in two and those committing themselves to the covenant would walk between the two halves. The implication of the ceremony is that those who entered the covenant accept that what happened to the calf will happen to them if they break the covenant. There is a telling play on words that highlights the gravity of what has happened. The word transgressed in Jeremiah 34:18 and the word passed between have the same Hebrew root abar which means to pass through. In other words, those who had walked between the two halves of the calf have walked away from their commitment to the covenant.¹ It is no coincidence that the only other time that this kind of covenant-making ceremony is mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 15:7–21 when the Lord makes a covenant with Abraham. It is clear that Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem understand their covenant as part of the covenant that the Lord has made with them as a nation. The Lord affirms this when he says that the people of Jerusalem have broken my covenant and did not keep the terms of the agreement they made with me (Jeremiah 34:18).