37:31 The law of their God controls their thinking; 1
their 2 feet do not slip.
40:8 I want to do what pleases you, 3 my God.
Your law dominates my thoughts.” 4
31:34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. 12 For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” 13 says the Lord. “For 14 I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
31:2 The Lord says,
“The people of Israel who survived
death at the hands of the enemy 15
will find favor in the wilderness
as they journey to find rest for themselves.
1 tn Heb “the law of his God [is] in his heart.” The “heart” is here the seat of one’s thoughts and motives.
2 tn Heb “his.” The pronoun has been translated as plural to agree with the representative or typical “godly” in v. 30.
3 tn Or “your will.”
4 tn Heb “your law [is] in the midst of my inner parts.” The “inner parts” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s thought life and moral decision making.
5 tn 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.
6 tn 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.
7 tn Heb “Oracle of the
8 tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the
9 tn 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.
10 tn 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.
11 sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.
12 tn Heb “teach…, saying, ‘Know the
13 sn 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).
14 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this clause refers to more than just the preceding clause (i.e., that all will know the
15 tn Heb “who survived the sword.”
16 tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”
17 sn A quotation from Jer 31:33.