Jeremiah 3:16

3:16 In those days, your population will greatly increase ¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁴ 

Jeremiah 11:6

11:6 The Lord said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you ⁵  and carry them out!

Jeremiah 11:8

11:8 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ⁶ 

Jeremiah 11:10

11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways ⁷  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ⁸  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ⁹  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

Jeremiah 31:33

31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel ¹⁰  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹¹  says the Lord. ¹²  “I will ¹³  put my law within them ¹⁴  and write it on their hearts and minds. ¹⁵  I will be their God and they will be my people. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 34:8

The Lord Threatens to Destroy Those Who Wronged Their Slaves

34:8 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant ¹⁷  with all the people in Jerusalem ¹⁸  to grant their slaves their freedom.

Jeremiah 34:10

34:10 All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 34:15

34:15 Recently, however, you yourselves ²⁰  showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. ²¹ 

[3:16]  ¹ tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”

[3:16]  ² tn Or “chest.”

[3:16]  ³ tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the Lord, cf. Exod 31:18; 32:15; 34:29.

[3:16]  ⁴ tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”

[11:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the terms of this covenant.” However, this was a separate message and the ambiguity of “this” could still cause some confusion.

[11:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant which I commanded to do and they did not do.” There is an interesting polarity that is being exploited by two different nuances implicit in the use of the word “terms” (דִּבְרֵי [divre], literally “words”), i.e., what the Lord “brings on” them, namely, the curses that are the penalty for disobedience and the stipulations that they are “to do,” that is, to carry out. The sentence is broken up this way in keeping with contemporary English style to avoid the long and complicated style of the original.

[11:10]  ¹³ tn Or “They have repeated the evil actions of….”

[11:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “have walked/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[11:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “house of Israel and house of Judah.”

[31:33]  ¹⁷ 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.

[31:33]  ¹⁸ 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.

[31:33]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ²⁰ tn 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]  ²¹ 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.

[31:33]  ²² 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.

[31:33]  ²³ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[34:8]  ²¹ tn Usually translated “covenant.” See the study note on 11:2 for the rationale for the translation here.

[34:8]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[34:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “And they complied, [that is] all the leaders and all the people who entered into the covenant that they would each let his male slave and his female slave go free so as not to hold them in bondage any longer; they complied and they let [them] go.” The verb “they complied” (Heb “they hearkened”) is repeated at the end after the lengthy description of the subject. This is characteristic of Hebrew style. The translation has resolved the complex sentence by making the relative clauses modifying the subject independent sentences describing the situational background before mentioning the main focus, “they had complied and let them go.”

[34:15]  ²⁹ tn The presence of the independent pronoun in the Hebrew text is intended to contrast their actions with those of their ancestors.

[34:15]  ³⁰ sn This refers to the temple. See Jer 7:10, 11, 14, 30 and see the translator’s note on 7:10 and the study note on 10:25 for the explanation of the idiom involved here.