Jeremiah 31:31-40

31:31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, ¹  “when I will make a new covenant ²  with the people of Israel and Judah. ³  31:32 It will not be like the old ⁴  covenant that I made with their ancestors ⁵  when I delivered them ⁶  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 Israel ⁹  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹⁰  says the Lord. ¹¹  “I will ¹²  put my law within them ¹³  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. “For ¹⁸  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 

Jerusalem Will Be Enlarged

31:38 “Indeed a time is coming,” ²⁵  says the Lord, ²⁶  “when the city of Jerusalem ²⁷  will be rebuilt as my special city. ²⁸  It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate. ²⁹  31:39 The boundary line will extend beyond that, straight west from there to the Hill of Gareb and then turn southward to Goah. ³⁰  31:40 The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown ³¹  and all the terraced fields ³²  out to the Kidron Valley ³³  on the east as far north ³⁴  as the Horse Gate ³⁵  will be included within this city that is sacred to the Lord. ³⁶  The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”

[31:31]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

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

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

[31:32]  ⁴ tn 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

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

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

[31:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[31:34]  ¹⁶ tn 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]  ¹⁷ 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).

[31:34]  ¹⁸ 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 Lord) but to all of vv. 31-34a (See BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.c).

[31:35]  ¹⁹ tn 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:36]  ²¹ tn 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]  ²² sn This answers Jeremiah’s question in 14:19.

[31:37]  ²³ tn 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]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:38]  ²⁵ tc The words “is coming” (בָּאִים, ba’im) are not in the written text (Kethib) but are supplied in the margin (Qere), in several Hebrew mss and in the versions. It is part of the idiom that also occurs in vv. 27, 31.

[31:38]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:38]  ²⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[31:38]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the city will be built to [or for] the Lord.” The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity. However, the word occurs in a first person speech so the translation has accommodated the switch in person as it has in a number of other places (compare also NIV, TEV, ICV).

[31:38]  ²⁹ tn The word “westward” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[31:39]  ³⁰ tn The words “west” and “southward” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[31:40]  ³¹ sn It is generally agreed that this refers to the Hinnom Valley which was on the southwestern and southern side of the city. It was here where the people of Jerusalem had burned their children as sacrifices and where the Lord had said that there would be so many dead bodies when he punished them that they would be unable to bury all of them (cf. Jer 7:31-32). Reference here may be to those dead bodies and to the ashes of the cremated victims. This defiled place would be included within the holy city.

[31:40]  ³² tc The translation here follows the Qere and a number of Hebrew mss in reading שְׁדֵמוֹת (shÿdemot) for the otherwise unknown word שְׁרֵמוֹת (shÿremot) exhibiting the common confusion of ר (resh) and ד (dalet). The fields of Kidron are mentioned also in 2 Kgs 23:4 as the place where Josiah burned the cult objects of Baal.

[31:40]  ³³ sn The Kidron Valley is the valley that joins the Hinnom Valley in the southeastern corner of the city and runs northward on the east side of the city.

[31:40]  ³⁴ tn The words “on the east” and “north” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give orientation.

[31:40]  ³⁵ sn The Horse Gate is mentioned in Neh 3:28 and is generally considered to have been located midway along the eastern wall just south of the temple area.

[31:40]  ³⁶ tn The words “will be included within this city that is” are not in the text. The text merely says that “The whole valley…will be sacred to the Lord.” These words have been supplied in the translation because they are really implicit in the description of the whole area as being included within the new city plan, not just the Hinnom and terraced fields as far as the Kidron Valley.