To cut (off, down or asunder); by implication, to destroy or consume ; specifically, to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
כָּרַת (karat) is the Hebrew verb for cutting — and its most theologically significant use is the phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berith, to cut a covenant), a frequent covenant idiom and the standard Hebrew expression for establishing a formal covenant. ' Every covenant in the OT — with Noah, Abraham, Israel at Sinai, David, and the new covenant — is a karat berith.
Reader summary
Full entry for כָּרַת (H3772) · Open the biblical lexicon
כָּרַת (karat) is the Hebrew verb for cutting — and its most theologically significant use is the phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berith, to cut a covenant), a frequent covenant idiom and the standard Hebrew expression for establishing a formal covenant. ' Every covenant in the OT — with Noah, Abraham, Israel at Sinai, David, and the new covenant — is a karat.
The BSB source-word alignment has 288 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include cut off (13), must be cut off (13), made (12), will be cut off (12), I will cut off (11).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 9:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (27), Leviticus (20), Ezekiel (19), Isaiah (18).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
כָּרַת (karat) is the Hebrew verb for cutting — and its most theologically significant use is the phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berith, to cut a covenant), a frequent covenant idiom and the standard Hebrew expression for establishing a formal covenant. The 'cutting' refers to the covenant-ratification ceremony in which animals are divided and the parties pass between the pieces — a self-curse ritual meaning 'may I be like this animal if I violate the terms.' Every covenant in the OT — with Noah, Abraham, Israel at Sinai, David, and the new covenant — is a karat berith.
Genesis 15:18 gives karat its Abrahamic form: 'On that day YHWH cut a covenant (karat berith) with Abram, saying: To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.' The context of Genesis 15:9-17 shows the ceremony: Abram cuts the animals (v. 10), waits (v. 11-12), and then a smoking firepot and flaming torch (representing YHWH's presence) pass between the pieces (v. 17). YHWH alone passes between the pieces — the covenant is unconditional from YHWH's side. The Abrahamic karat berith is the basis for every subsequent covenant promise in Scripture.
Exodus 24:8 gives karat its Sinai-blood form: 'And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said: Behold the blood of the covenant (dam ha-berith) that YHWH has cut with you in accordance with all these words.' The blood of the Sinai covenant ratification (oxen slaughtered, blood sprinkled on the altar in v. 5-6, then on the people in v. 8) is the karat-seal of the Mosaic covenant. The people's 'we will do and obey' (v. 7) is their covenant-oath; the blood-sprinkling is the covenant-ratification. Moses's statement ('this is the blood of the covenant') is precisely what Jesus echoes at the Last Supper (Matt 26:28).
Jeremiah 31:31 gives karat its new-covenant form: 'Behold, the days are coming, declares YHWH, when I will cut (vekhartiy) a new covenant (berith chadashah) with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.' The new covenant is itself a karat berith — another cutting, another act of divine covenant-initiative. The berith chadashah (new covenant) is contrasted with the Sinai covenant (v. 32: 'not like the covenant I cut [karat] with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, my covenant they broke') — this time the Torah will be written on the heart (v. 33), and YHWH will forgive their iniquity (v. 34).
The negative use of karat — to cut off — is the covenant-curse form: 'that person shall be cut off (nikhreta) from his people' (Gen 17:14, Lev 7:20, Num 15:30). The karet-penalty (excision from the covenant community) is the severest non-capital penalty in the Torah — the violator loses their place in the covenant people. The same cutting that forms the covenant (karat berith) severs the covenant-breaker (nikhreta).
For the preacher, כָּרַת (karat) gives the congregation the grammar of covenant-formation: YHWH is the one who initiates every karat berith; his covenant-cut binds him to his people with the full weight of self-curse oath.
כָּרַת (karat) appears in the local Hebrew index about 290 times. Its theological center is the phrase karat berith (to cut a covenant, a frequent covenant idiom): the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 15:18), the Sinai covenant ratified in blood (Exod 24:8), the Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7:8-16 in covenant-language), and the new covenant (Jer 31:31). The negative karet (nikhreta — to be cut off from one's people) is the covenant-exclusion penalty in the Torah (Gen 17:14, Lev 7:20).
The physical karat (cutting down trees, cutting off enemies in battle) is also frequent.
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
YHWH cuts the Abrahamic covenant: 'on that day YHWH karat berith (cut a covenant) with Abram.' The ceremony of Genesis 15:9-17 is the explicit covenant-cutting: animals divided, birds halved (v. 10), Abram in a deep sleep (tardemah, v. 12), YHWH's presence (smoking firepot and flaming torch) passes between the pieces alone (v. 17). YHWH alone passes between the halves — the self-curse falls on YHWH alone if the covenant is violated.
This is the unconditional Abrahamic covenant: YHWH binds himself to the land-promise without requiring Abram to also pass through. The karat berith of Genesis 15 is the foundation-stone of all subsequent covenant-theology.
So Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
The blood of the Sinai karat berith: 'this is the blood of the covenant (dam ha-berith) that YHWH has cut (karat) with you in accordance with all these words.' The Sinai covenant ratification (Exod 24:5-8) uses blood: half sprinkled on the altar (the divine side) and half on the people (the human side). Moses's declaration 'this is the blood of the covenant' directly echoes Genesis 15's covenant-cutting — but here both parties are sealed by blood.
Jesus's words at the Last Supper (Matt 26:28: 'this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins') deliberately echo Exodus 24:8 and inaugurate the new covenant in his own blood.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
YHWH will cut a new covenant: 'the days are coming, declares YHWH, when I will karat (cut) a berith chadashah (new covenant) with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.' The new covenant is not a covenant without a cutting — it is a new karat berith. The contrast is with the Mosaic covenant they broke (v. 32): the berith chadashah will be different — Torah written on the heart (v.
33), Universal knowledge of YHWH (v. 34), full forgiveness (v. 34). Hebrews 8:8-12 quotes the entire Jeremiah 31:31-34 passage as the proof that the Mosaic covenant has been superseded by the new covenant ratified in Christ's blood.
But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
Karet — to be cut off from the covenant community: 'that soul shall be nikhreta (cut off) from his people — he has broken my covenant.' The covenant-sign of circumcision (v. 10-13) has a karet-penalty: the uncircumcised person is himself 'cut' — severed from the people who carry the covenant. The same cutting that forms the covenant (karat berith) severs those who refuse its sign (nikhreta). The karet-penalty appears repeatedly in the Torah for various violations — the inverse of the covenant-cutting.
Is not my house right with God? For He has established with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and secured in every part. Will He not bring about my full salvation and my every desire?
The Davidic covenant as karat berith: 'he has made (sam, here — though elsewhere karat berith is used of the David covenant, 2 Sam 7:8-16) with me an everlasting covenant (berith olam), ordered in all things and secure.' David's last words acknowledge the covenant-relationship with YHWH. The Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7) is the royal-dynastic application of the covenant-cutting pattern: YHWH commits to David's line, to an everlasting throne, and to a Father-son relationship with David's heir.
2 Samuel 23:5's berith olam is the Abrahamic-land-promise applied to the royal line: as YHWH's covenant with Abraham was olam (everlasting), so the Davidic covenant is olam.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Covenant-making through cutting; the ritual severing of flesh ratifies binding obligation before God.
Covenant-making through cutting; the ritual severing of flesh ratifies binding obligation before God.
to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication, to destroy or consume; specifically, to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces) BDB: cut off Usage: be chewed, be con-(feder-) ate, covenant, cut (down, off), destroy, fail, feller, be freed, hew (down), make a league (covenant), × lose, perish, × utterly, × want.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 290 lexical occurrence verses.
כָּרַת is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The term reflects the ultimate consequence of corrupt speech. Isaiah 18:1-7
It emphasizes the thorough and intentional nature of divine purification. Micah 5:10-15
The verb conveys intentional intervention before human plans mature. Proverbs 10:31
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
כָּרַת (karat) — in its covenant form karat berith — gives the congregation the grammar of how YHWH binds himself to his people: through the formal, oath-sealed, ceremony-marked act of covenant-cutting. Every major covenant in Scripture is a karat berith: Abraham (Gen 15:18), Sinai (Exod 24:8), and the new covenant (Jer 31:31). The 'cutting' in karat berith refers to the ceremony in which animals are divided and parties pass between the pieces — the implicit self-curse: 'may I be like this animal if I violate the terms.'
In Genesis 15:17, YHWH alone passes between the halves — the covenant with Abraham is unconditional from YHWH's side; he has sworn by himself. The Sinai covenant adds Israel's blood (Exod 24:8) — both parties are sealed. The new covenant (Jer 31:31) is cut with the blood of the Son himself (Matt 26:28: 'this is my blood of the covenant'). Every karat berith points to the final karat berith that requires not the blood of animals but the blood of the eternal covenant-initiator.
Hebrews 13:20 calls it 'the blood of the eternal covenant' — the karat berith that cannot be revoked because the one who cuts it is the one who died to seal it.
Gen.15.18
כָּרַת (karat, H3772) generates the covenant phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berith, to cut a covenant — a frequent Hebrew idiom). The related noun כָּרֵת (karet, the covenant-excision penalty) does not appear independently as a noun in the OT but is derived from the Niphal form nikhreta (to be cut off). The phrase karat berith is the OT's standard covenant-formation idiom: 'cutting a covenant' rather than 'making' or 'establishing' — the cutting refers both to the covenant-animal ceremony and possibly to the ancient Near Eastern idiom for 'sealing a deal' (comparable to the English 'cutting a deal').
Ugaritic, Akkadian, and Aramaic cognates confirm the cutting-animal-ceremony background. In NT Greek, the primary heir for the covenant-concept is diatheke (G1242, covenant/testament — the word used in Heb 8-9 for the Sinai covenant and the new covenant, and in Matt 26:28 for the blood of the covenant). The Greek diatheke emphasizes the one-sided, testamentary nature of the covenant — closer to a will/testament than a bilateral agreement — which accords with the Genesis 15 pattern where YHWH alone passes through the pieces.
Matthew 26:28 is the NT's karat berith at the Last Supper: 'This is my blood of the covenant (haima tes diathekes mou) which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.' Jesus echoes both Exodus 24:8 ('this is the blood of the covenant') and Jeremiah 31:31-34 (the new covenant in whose terms the Sinai covenant is superseded). The Last Supper is the new karat berith: the covenant cut not with bull's blood but with the Son's.
Hebrews 8:6-13 quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 in full to establish the superiority of the new covenant over the old — the karat berith of Sinai is 'obsolete and growing old' (v. 13) because a new karat berith has been cut. Hebrews 9:15-22 is the fullest NT exposition of the karat berith theology: 'For a covenant (diatheke) is in force only when the covenant-maker has died...
Hence even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood' (v. 17-18, quoting Exod 24:5-8). The karat berith theology's self-curse logic (may I be like the cut animal) is fulfilled in the death of the covenant-initiator himself: Christ dies as the self-curse of the covenant so that the covenant stands permanently. Hebrews 13:20 calls it 'the blood of the eternal covenant (diatheke aioniou)' — the karat berith that requires no further cutting.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain