And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
Ver. 10. Divided them in the midst.] In signum exitii foedifrago eventuri. This was the federal rite both among Jews Jer 34:18-19 and Gentiles, as it is to be seen in Virgil, a describing the covevant of Romulus and Tatius. God also threateneth to cut the evil servant in twain (διχοτομησει) that forgetteth the covenant of his God. Mat 24:51 These dissected creatures are the oppressed Israelites; the parts laid each against other signify, that God will make them up again, though dissected; the fowls that came down upon them, are the Egyptians; Abram's chasing them away, is their deliverance by Moses after four hundred years, signified by those four kinds of creatures, as Luther interpreteth.
a Aeneid., lib. viii.