Jeremiah 31:31-37

Context

31:31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord,¹ “when I will make a new covenant² with the people of Israel and Judah.³ 31:32 It will not be like the old⁴ covenant that I made with their ancestors⁵ when I delivered them⁶ from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,”⁷ says the Lord.⁸ 31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel⁹ after I plant them back in the land,”¹⁰ says the Lord.¹¹ “I will¹² put my law within them¹³ and write it on their hearts and minds.¹⁴ I will be their God and they will be my people.¹⁵

31:34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me.¹⁶ For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,”¹⁷ says the Lord. “For¹⁸ I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

The Lord Guarantees Israel’s Continuance

31:35 The Lord has made a promise to Israel.

He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by day

and the moon and stars to give light by night.

He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll.

He promises it as the one who is known as the Lord who rules over all.¹⁹

31:36 The Lord affirms,²⁰ “The descendants of Israel will not

cease forever to be a nation in my sight.

That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights

were to cease to operate before me.”²¹

31:37 The Lord says, “I will not reject all the descendants of Israel

because of all that they have done.²²

That could only happen if the heavens above could be measured

or the foundations of the earth below could all be explored,”²³

says the Lord.²⁴

[31:31] ¹tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:31] ²tn Or “a renewed covenant” (also in vv. 22-23).

[31:31] ³tn Heb “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

[31:32] ⁴tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32] ⁵tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32] ⁶tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32] ⁷tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32] ⁸tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33] ⁹tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.

[31:33] ¹⁰tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.

[31:33] ¹¹tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33] ¹²tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the Lord, ‘I will….’” The sentence has been reworded and restructured to avoid the awkwardness of the original style.

[31:33] ¹³tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.

[31:33] ¹⁴tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.

[31:33] ¹⁵sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[31:34] ¹⁶tn Heb “teach…, saying, ‘Know the Lord.’” The indirect quote has been chosen for stylistic reasons, i.e., to better parallel the following line.

[31:34] ¹⁷sn This statement should be understood against the background of Jer 8:8-9 where class distinctions were drawn and certain people were considered to have more awareness and responsibility for knowing the law and also Jer 5:1-5 and 9:3-9 where the sinfulness of Israel was seen to be universal across these class distinctions and no trust was to be placed in friends, neighbors, or relatives because all without distinction had cast off God’s yoke (i.e., refused to submit themselves to his authority).

[31:34] ¹⁸tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this clause refers to more than just the preceding clause (i.e., that all will know the Lord) but to all of vv. 31-34a (See BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.c).

[31:35] ¹⁹tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for this title. In the Hebrew text the verse reads: “Thus says the Lord who provides the sun for light by day, the fixed ordering of the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar, whose name is Yahweh of armies, ‘…’” The hymnic introduction to the quote which does not begin until v. 36 has been broken down to avoid a long awkward sentence in English. The word “said” has been translated “made a promise” to reflect the nature of the content in vv. 36-37. The first two lines of the Hebrew poetry are a case of complex or supplementary ellipsis where the complete idea of “providing/establishing the fixed laws” is divided between the two lines (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 110-13). The necessity for recombining the ellipsis is obvious from reference to the fixed ordering in the next verse. (Some commentators prefer to delete the word as an erroneous glossing of the word in the following line (see, e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 277, n. y).

[31:36] ²⁰tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:36] ²¹tn Heb “‘If these fixed orderings were to fail to be present before me,’ oracle of the Lord, ‘then the seed of Israel could cease from being a nation before me forever (or more literally, “all the days”).’” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to modern style. The connection has been maintained by reversing the order of condition and consequence and still retaining the condition in the second clause. For the meaning of “cease to operate” for the verb מוּשׁ (mush) compare the usage in Isa 54:10; Ps 55:11 (55:12 HT); Prov 17:13 where what is usually applied to persons or things is applied to abstract things like this (see HALOT 506 s.v. II מוּשׁ Qal for general usage).

[31:37] ²²sn This answers Jeremiah’s question in 14:19.

[31:37] ²³tn Heb “If the heavens above could be measured or the foundations of the earth below be explored, then also I could reject all the seed of Israel for all they have done.”

[31:37] ²⁴tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”