this covenant administration by the utmost limits of contemporaneity (here described by means of numerical climax, a popular device of Hebrew and Canaanite literature). Both copies of the covenant were laid before Yahweh as God of the oath. But what was the purpose of Yahweh’s own copy in his capacity as covenant Suzerain? In the case of the international treaties, the suzerain would naturally want to possess, preserve, and protect a sealed legal witness to the treaty. It would remind him of the