Nowadays, agreements are usually typewritten, composed by a lawyer, and signed in front of a witness. However, it wasn't always so formal. During the years the Old Testament was written, agreements and covenants were primarily verbal contracts between two participants. Those contracts took many forms and each had different customs associated with it. These contracts are also called covenants and have many different uses and meanings throughout the Bible. Some commitments made in these pacts had been accompanied by oaths or self-curses that would be implemented if the pacts were violated (New International Version 25). There are numerous ways to translate the word covenant and many different types of covenants in use in the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, covenants were used by people to make agreements with each other. God also participated in these agreements and made promises to specific people and tribes in the Old and New Testaments. In the Bible the word covenant means 'to cut' (Monk), which is why when two people made a covenant they walked through the cut bodies of slain animals (New International Version, (Jer 34;14). Although, it was customary for both parties benefited from such an agreement, it was not always customary for the covenant to be mutual. Many of the covenants made between God and his followers depended on their loyalty to him “Covenant concepts, used for relationship. between God and his people constitute much of the skeletal structure of the Bible” (Foster 206). Most of the covenants had specific implications and among the participating individuals there are several types of covenants currently in use document......1 .Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Arnold. The Eight Covenants of the Bible November 13, 2005. October 29, 2011. Monk, Charles L. A Look at the Biblical Covenants and Their Meanings February 22, 2003. October 29, 2011 .Newman, Judith H. “From Monarch to Bishop: Covenant, Torah, and Community Formation in the Old Testament and the Anglican Communion Anglican Theological Review 85.1 (2003): 35-51.” ATLA Religions Database with ATLASerials. Network. November 2, 2011. Nystrom, Gary. The biblical scholar. and October 29, 2011. Padfield, David. Five great biblical covenants. 2004. October 29, 2011 .Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Zondervan New Bible for International Study. Ed. Kenneth L. Barker. 2008. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.