Magdalene Bergevin
OT Lit and Interpretation
Prof Higginbotham
24 April 2021
Jeremiah 31:31-40 “The New Covenant”
Being a prophet is by no means an easy job. According to Fred Malone, their “lot as a prophet was to give harsh warnings and bear their opposition with persecution” (66). The prophet Jeremiah was one such prophet. It was his job to speak God’s words to the people all the while knowing they may not receive the news with kindness. At this point in time Israel has forsaken their first covenant relationship that they made with God on Mount Sinai. The people have abandoned the law of the lord and have run after idols made by human hands. Jeremiah is charged with the task of communicating God’s punishment for their unfaithful actions. However, this specific chapter gives a breath of hope to the people of Israel because it looks forward to a time when they will return from exile, and God will make a new relationship with His people. Instead of focusing on outer actions, this covenant will be between God and the individual hearts of the people.
Going into this passage it is important to understand the context Jeremiah and his period of prophecy during the post-exilic age. Jeremiah was born around 640 BC into a priestly family and began his ministry in 627 BC the 13th year of King Josiah of Judah. During Josiah’s reign, a priest by the name of Hilkiah discovered a forgotten book of the law, probably Deuteronomy, in the temple. Upon reading this book, Josiah realized how far his kingdom has strayed from following the commands of God, and he began to purge idol worship and Assyrian religious practices from all of Judah. Andrew Dearman explains that “Josiah sought to reincorporate parts of the northern territory and population in his religious and political reforms, and it is certainly plausible to see the young Jeremiah as a supporter of these goals” (268). If Jeremiah actually did help Josiah with these religious reforms, it makes sense that Jeremiah would have been proclaiming the end of exile to these territories that had been taken into exile. Likewise, the future hope of a new covenant expressed in Chapter 31 may have been directed towards the Israelites from northern kingdoms who were already vassals of the Assyrians at that time.
Jeremiah continues to prophesy until 587 BC when Babylon gained complete control over Judah and the people were exiled from their land (Malone, 63). This eventual fall of Judah is a result of the people’s unfaithfulness to God. Because they abandoned their covenant agreement and persistently broke all of the 10 commandments, God will take away their land and make them foreigners once more: just like when they were in Egypt and wandering in the wilderness with no home.
After Josiah dies in a battle against Egypt, Jeremiah’s prophesies begin to commence. First, Judah becomes a vassal of Egypt and king Jehoiakim reverses the reforms and work of Josiah. Jehoiakim “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” by disregarding the law and allowing the kingdom to fall right back into idol worship (2 Kings 23:37). This is evidence that Josiah’s reforms were not enough to change the hearts of the people, and it is for this reason that they will be taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar and exiled from their land for 70 years (Jer 25). Eventually Assyria’s power over Israel lessens, but this creates an opportunity for Babylon to step in and take control. While Babylon is at war with Egypt, king Jehoiakim of Judah counters the advice of Jeremiah and rebels against Babylon. Unfortunately, Jehoiakim is defeated because God was not with him, Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem, and everyone is taken into exile just as the Lord said would happen (Malone, 65).
If Jeremiah is declaring a New Covenant to come, then what is the “Old Covenant” that the people are living under at this time? At this point in history, Israel: God’s chosen nation, has been under a covenant agreement with God, established at Mount Sinai between God himself and “the national community of Israel after its deliverance from Egypt” (Wright, 92). However even before this Mosaic covenant was made, Israel had been living in expectation of Yahweh’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you” (v2). This covenant between God and Abraham concerns his offspring, land, and relationship with God. God promised Abraham that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and that these descendants would become a great nation (Gen 15:5). Abraham and this nation later known as Israel would have a special relationship with God: “I will be their God and they will be my people” (Jer 33). And lastly, “God would give the land of Abraham’s own wanderings as an inheritance that would prove his faithfulness and their relationship to him” (Wright, 90). Abraham and his descendants are expected to trust that the Lord is sovereign through history and wait for these promises of offspring and land to come to pass.
The Mosaic covenant at Sinai was the next step to the relationship between God and his people. The Sinai covenant laid out specific instructions as to how Israel could keep their side of the covenant so that God would continue to bless and provide for them. In this covenant promise literally written in stone, God promises the people that He will save them from their oppressors, take them as their own people, be their God, and bring them into the land He has promised for them (Exodus 6:6-8). As Wright states in his book Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, “The response stipulated within this covenant is total and exclusive loyalty to Yahweh” (93). The only thing God asks of his chosen people is that they remain completely devoted to Him. And this is exactly where we find Jeremiah in 587 BC: trying to warn Israel that their unfaithfulness to the Lord will lead to their destruction and the loss of the land that God brought them into. An important thing to note here is that the covenant is unconditional, and God does not rely on Israel to keep their part of the deal. Rather, “God simply acts of his own initiative” (Wright, 86). The covenant made on Mount Sinai between God and the people expects a response from Israel, but God does not depend on Israel’s response. In short, God does not need Israel to follow his commands, He just tells them to do so because if they do, they will be blessed. Even so, if Israel fails to keep their side of the deal, which they most certainly will, God never gives up on them.
McConville and Boda’s Dictionary of the Old Testament likens the book of Jeremiah to a roller coaster ride. In the chapters leading up to this one, Jeremiah prophesies imminent doom for Israel and takes readers “down long tracks of despair, but at times they are lifted up to heights of hope” (423). The New Covenant found in chapter 31 is one of these messages of hope sandwiched in between God’s judgement on the people of Israel for falling away from God and his commands. Jeremiah 31 contains a bright expectation of security for the future during these tumultuous times for Israel. The verses leading up to it contain prophesies of destruction coupled with a view into the far future of return from exile when God will re-establish his presence in their midst. This structure “blatantly matches three times Yahweh’s past punishment of the covenant people with their future restoration” to emphasize that even though they are going to receive the Lord’s judgement right now, it will not be permanent (McConville, 433). These verses make it clear that God is merciful and good. No matter how many times Israel sins, the Lord is forgiving and will hold true to his promises even if his chosen nation fails.
Jeremiah 31:31-40 declares that when God’s people repent of their evil ways, he will restore their relationship with Him once again, and this is done through Jeremiah’s introduction of the New Covenant in verse 31. ““The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.” This New Covenant takes the place of the Old Covenant at Mount Sinai, and it will include all of Israel. Even though the kingdoms are divided at this time, God emphasizes their reunion; they are all included in this New Covenant agreement. The Lord goes on to say that this New Covenant will not be like the covenant made at Sinai after their deliverance from Egypt “because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them” (32). The word “husband” in Hebrew actually means to marry, own, or be master over. God uses the metaphor of “husband” quite a lot in the bible, and one of these instances is in Ezekiel when God reminds his people of the great work he did for Israel when he “brought his people to himself in the dessert and entered into a covenant with them” (Dearman, 287). This particular instance refers to Ezekiel’s depiction of the Old Covenant as God entering into a marriage covenant with Israel: “in the wilderness I made my vow to you and entered into covenant with you,” declares the Lord God, “and you became mine” (16:8). Essentially, God uses this same metaphor of being the husband of Israel in this passage from Jeremiah to communicate the unfaithfulness of Israel to his loving treatment of them as a bride. Israel broke the marriage covenant with God and rejected the glorious splendor of the Lord bestowed upon them (Ezekiel 16:14).
After God’s people reject His commands, the Lord declares “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (33). This verse contrasts the Old Covenant Ten Commandments (written on tablets of stone), to the new law that will be internal and written on the hearts of the people. Now instead of being saved by outward actions and sacrifices, Israel will be judged by what is in their hearts. Consequentially, with these laws written on the hearts of the people “preaching and family teaching will be rendered obsolete” (McConville, 438).
This covenant with its implications for everyone “from the least to the greatest” and the predicted unnecessity for preaching and teaching can be a controversial message for the church today as well as the church during Jesus’ day. David Rhymer explains that the culture back then would not take very kindly to a New Covenant that would take away the privileges of those in power who could read and interpret scriptures on their own. Jeremiah’s description of the New Covenant would not be conducive for a culture where “education and office [gain] power and privilege, and where "the people" know their place” (2). If the people of God actually take this covenant seriously, a lot of the existing power structures would disappear because with this new knowledge of God the need for teachers, leaders, and priests would decrease. The New Covenant levels the playing field so that everyone has equal opportunity to be in relationship with God: “they will all know me” (v34). This covenant is meant to stop those in the “pulpit” from deciding the interpretations of the scriptures for those “in the pew.” During the post-exilic period, these people in the pew would be those who couldn’t read or were in socially disadvantaged positions that kept them from hearing the truth (Rhymer, 2). When God says, “no longer will they teach their neighbor,” He is making his forgiveness and grace, accessible to everyone. This does not mean that there should be no more teachers of the law, rather God is saying that the scriptures and their interpretations should be accessible to everyone. God’s people will no longer have to go through someone in power to understand God’s word and law. Instead, everyone will be able to discern the will of the Lord individually.
According to this passage, when the New Covenant is established, all peoples will know the Lord and God will “forgive their iniquity” and “remember their sins no more” (v34). This demonstrates that the New Covenant will not require humanity to make repeated sacrifices to be saved because God has made it possible for everyone to know the Lord though his blood. This specific passage does say explicitly how God will bring about this New Covenant, but the names of the Old and New Testaments “[relegate] them to the role of prefiguring Jesus (Callaway, 8). The very names of the Old and New Testaments come from this New Covenant passage in Jeremiah because of the importance of Jesus’ life in fulfilling all that took place during the Old Testament and under the Old Covenant. The New Testament (aka Covenant) eventually culminates in the redemptive work of Christ on the Cross, saving humanity from their sins and enabling them to be in relationship with him again (more on this later). This death and resurrection of Christ is the act that enables God to “remember their sins no more” (34).
Next, Jeremiah takes a whole six lines to introduce the Lord’s next promise of the covenant. This introduction describes “the Lord Almighty” as the creator of the sun, moon, and stars and the one who “stirs up the sea so that its waves roar” (35). It is clear here that Jeremiah is proclaiming God as the creator and orchestrator of the cosmos. This lengthy introduction also demonstrates God’s prevalence over other deities because Israel was being unfaithful to God and worshiping many other gods or baals. These gods were often thought to control crops, rain, and fertility, and because the Israelites had many religious festivals that were centered around seasons of planting and harvest it makes sense that Jeremiah includes this extensive list of the power of God over the heavens: specifically, the parts of creation that measure time. Jeremiah is saying that “the Lord Almighty” is above all things and no one but him controls the times and seasons (McConville, 93). Following this statement, The Lord declares that as long as he is in control of the heavens and the earth, he will remember Israel as a nation (36). He explains that he will only reject Israel “if the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below be searched out” which is something no mortal can actually accomplish (37). Therefore, this verse declares God as the “Lord Almighty” who is ultimately in control of everything; He stirs up the sea and causes the sun and moon to continue to shine. Fundamentally, God is saying that he will never give up on Israel his chosen nation. There is nothing Israel could do that would make him “reject all the descendants of Israel” (37). Dearman puts it nicely: “Just as the order of the cosmos is secure, so is God’s commitment to his people” (288).
Finally in the last three verses of the chapter, God makes His promise to Israel and Judah that the “city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate” (38). This is the ultimate message of hope to the people of God. During a time when Jeremiah has been steadily the message of destruction and exile for the Lord’s people, this passage will come like a breath of fresh air. It gives them a concrete hope of rebuilding their cities and livelihoods. God promises that “the whole valley… will be holy to the Lord” (40). Even though the city will be destroyed, the temple will be demolished, and God’s presence will leave the city, just like Ezekiel sees in his vision of the wheel (Ezekiel 1:15), this prophecy provides a sliver of light into Israel and Judah’s coming turbulent future. This sliver of hope culminates in God’s closing statement: “The city will never again be uprooted or demolished” (40). In this New Covenant, God will rebuild Jerusalem and his presence will reside there forever. Now the only thing Judah can do is to wait for this New covenant to come to pass.
Ultimately this prophesy looks through the upcoming tragedy that Israel will experience to a time where God’s relationship with his people will be renewed and his city Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The New Covenant refers to a time in the future when God will no longer require his people to offer sacrifices over and over again to be cleansed from their sins. Instead, there will be a new relationship between God and His people: one where God will “forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more” (34). God is choosing to pursue Israel continuously even through their sin. Lastly, the relationship between God and his people will not only be on the terms of God to a nation but knowing the Lord will be an individual and personal experience because every person will have his law written on their hearts. Having an individual knowledge of God and his law gives the underprivileged the same chances as those in power to know the Lord. Everyone will be connected to the Lord on a much more personal level.
This passage teaches us that God is a God of grace. No matter what his people do, this New Covenant is a testament to the fact that God will not give up on them as long as the earth still spins and time continues, God will keep this covenant and relationship with the people he loves. The whole setting of this covenant is enough to explain what God asks of his people. Because Israel and Judah turned away to worship other gods, they will be cast out from the land God set apart for them. But the Lord is faithful though humanity fails time and time again and he extends grace to his people despite their sin. In celebration of God’s grace and redemption, our calling is to remain faithful to the Lord, devoting our lives and everything we do to glorify the Lord Almighty.
Although the means of God’s eventual establishment of the covenant are not included specifically in this passage, a big part of the New Covenant is the promise of a coming king through David’s line. It is through a “branch” of David that “Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell surely” (Jer 33:15-16). The one whom this prophecy refers to is Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, Son of God. The New Covenant is fulfilled when Jesus enters “the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). Hebrews explains the idea that Jesus, is a high priest who like the priests of the Old Covenant, intercedes on behalf of the people by making sacrifices to God. But Jesus is different from these Old Testament priests, he is “a priest in the order of Melchizedek” –a king of Salem (Jerusalem) during the time of Moses (7:17). Ultimately, Jesus is sacrificed on the cross for our sins and his blood atones and cleanses the sins of all the people of the world. We are cleansed of our sin through Jesus’ death, and with his resurrection and later his ascension into heaven, all believers in Christ are given the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Jesus himself tells us that “The holy spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). This sounds a lot like Jeremiah’s prophesy that “no longer will they teach their neighbor” because “they will all know [the Lord]” (v34).
While this New Covenant points to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ’s coming presence on earth as the one by whom everyone from the least to the greatest will be saved and brought into relationship with God once again, this covenant also foresees a return from an even greater exile than Israel can see in this moment: a world of restored relationship with the Lord, free from the sin that exiled us from Him.
Jerimiah 31: 31-40 (NIV)
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[d] them,[e]”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
35 This is what the Lord says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the Lord Almighty is his name:
36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
declares the Lord,
“will Israel ever cease
being a nation before me.”
37 This is what the Lord says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the Lord.
38 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.
Works Cited
Callaway, Mary Chilton. “Jeremiah Through the Centuries.” 2020.
Dearman, John Andrew. Jeremiah and Lamentations. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2002. Print.
Malone, Fred A. A Critical Evaluation of the use of Jeremiah 31:31-34 in the Letter to the Hebrews, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Ann Arbor, 1989.
McConville, J. G., and Mark J. Boda. Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets. IVP Academic, 2012.
Rhymer, David. “Jeremiah 31:31–34.” Interpretation, vol. 59, no. 3, July 2005, pp. 294–296,
Wright, Christopher J.H. Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament. Second ed., InterVarsity Press, 2014.
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