A covenant is a morally-informed agreement or pact between people or parties having an independent and sufficiently equal status, based upon voluntary consent and established by mutual oaths or promises witnessed by the relevant higher authority. A covenant provides for joint action or obligation to achieve defined ends (limited or comprehensive) under conditions of mutual respect which protect the individual integrities of all the parties in it. Every covenant involves consenting, promising, and agreeing. Most are meant to be of unlimited duration, if not perpetual.

Daniel Elazar: "The Political Theory of Covenant: Biblical origins and Modern Developments". In: Publius Fall 1980 (10/4), 6.