First occurrence
But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. Gen 6:18
The primitive root
Strong’s H1285, beriyth, a concrete noun meaning, “covenant;” from Strong’s H1262 ברה barah, a primitive root meaning, “to cut;” said to be related to Strong’s H1254 ברא bara, a primitive root meaning, “to create.” The lexicons say the pictographs are bet + resh + hey.
bet ב = the house, thus house, household, family, in, within
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
hey ה = man with upraised arms, thus look, reveal, wonder, worship, breath
Dr. Davidson argues that the final hey in barah was originally transposed from an aleph, making the ancient pictographs bet + resh + aleph; and explains why most lexicons say that barah , “to cut,” is related to bara, “to create.”
To those acquainted with the minutiae of Hebrew grammar, it is well known that there is a close resemblance between the two classes of verbs lamed + aleph and lamed + he. Many instances might be given in which the forms of the one class are exchanged for those of the other. The two classes in fact seem to have been tending to coalescence into one form, although they did not arrive at such a state. In the Chaldee and Syriac they unite into one class. If then, verbs ending in aleph and in he had so near a resemblance in Hebrew, as that the proper forms of the one were often transferred to the other, we need not be surprised that the significations of the one should also, in some instances, be transferred to the other. [Examples from the Hebrew text of Scripture following.]
Dr. Samuel Davidson, Lectures on Biblical Criticism, Thomas Clark: Edinburgh: 1839; pp. 400-401.
So he disagrees that the two words are related in meaning, but he does agree that the two words are related in form, simply because of the transposition. Thus the ancient pictographs are bet + resh + aleph.
bet ב = the house, thus house, household, family, in, within
resh ר = the head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
aleph א = the ox head, thus strength, power, leader
The story is of a family (bet) of heads (resh), i.e., grain, since the ripe head of a grain stalk is composed of a family of seed heads. Grain (bet + resh) is given to the ox (aleph) or cattle to fatten it for slaughter; and it is this choice animal, the fattened ox, which is used in sacrifice, either in worship, or in cutting a covenant.
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