calling upon the gods to witness elaborate sacred oaths confirmed by ritual sacrifices and to enforce those oaths with blessings for faithfulness and curses for transgression.4 Thus, the establishment of covenants consisted essentially of a liturgy: ritual words and actions performed in the presence of divinity. The liturgical dimension of covenant-making appears quite clearly in the Old Testament, where the covenant is established through cultic ritual (see, for example, Exod. 24:4–11), and where