JEREMIAH 31:31-34

This is an extremely important passage since it foretells the coming of the New Covenant, or as Christians would call it, the New Testament. But first, let us see the semi-symmetrical manner by which similar words and phrases are arranged:

                                                         Key Words in Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are coming

    says the LORD (31a)

        I will make with the house of Israel (31b)

            a new covenant (31c)

                not like the old covenant (32a)

        in the days of their ancestors (32b)

                the covenant they broke (32c)

    says the LORD (32b)

            this covenant (33a)

       I will make with the house of Israel (33b)

---------

    says the LORD (33c)

                    no longer (34a)

    says the LORD (34b)

                    no more (34c)

Without going into too much detail regarding the details of each verse, below is what a number of scholars have to say regarding this passage as a whole:

Childs: “Older commentators...have observed the unusual way in which threats and promises are formulated in both an absolute and a conditional form (cf. chs. 7; 18). This observation is not to suggest that the fulfillment of the divine promises in the theology of Jeremiah must await Israel's fulfilling of certain conditions. The unconditional formulation (31:1ff) runs directly in the face of this interpretation. Nevertheless, the language of a covenant, indeed of a new covenant (31:31ff), implies a loyalty from the side of Israel. God's commitment to Israel is as fixed as the orders of the stars (31:35ff). In sum, the oracles...did not serve to engender passive waiting in the generations who looked for the promise, but functioned to order the life of the community who lived in expectation toward righteousness.”

Biddle: “This unit, like the others in this chain of eschatological texts with their characteristic introductory formulae...presumes and interweaves the language of ancestral apostasy (31.32...), an allusion to Judah's hardened heart (31.33...), and references to the failure of the knowledge of God in all strata of society (31.34...) into a promise of restored relationship. Opposing what was an increasingly limited concept of the Sinai covenant, the eschatologist affirms that God will make a new covenant (32.38-40) inscribed in the hearts of his people.” That last promise is also spelled out in 31:33.

Thompson: “This is the only reference to a new covenant in the OT. The short passage which develops from the simple announcement in this verse is one of the most important in the book of Jeremiah. Indeed it represents one of the deepest insights in the whole OT. It was taken up in later centuries by two different groups. The sectarians of Qumran understood themselves to be the men of the New Covenant. But the New Covenant for them was nothing more than the Mosaic Covenant with strong legalistic tendencies. The other group was the Christians, who saw the fulfillment of Jeremiah's words in the emergence of the Christian church, which was comprised of those who confessed Jesus as Lord (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:15; Heb. 8:8-9:28).”

D.R. Jones: “This is presented in prose of the tradition. This renders it intrinsically impossible that the passage can be a late contribution of a learned scribe for whom the new covenant is the dispensation in which all Israel will be learned scribes knowing the Torah by heart! (Duhm) Nor is this the most natural meaning of the words, which set the personal knowledge of God and forgiveness as the climax. It is difficult to imagine a learned scribe writing so ambiguously that the comparatively banal should be capable of so revolutionary a meaning.”

Bright states that this passage is “deservedly famous. It describes the new covenant that God would one day give his people, forgiving their sins and writing his law on their hearts so that all of them know him. As regards its authenticity, one can only say that it ought never to have been questioned. Although the passage may not preserve the prophet's ipsissima verba, it represents what might well be considered the high point of his theology. It is certainly one of the profoundest and most moving passages in the entire Bible.”

Bullock: The covenant that had been so peripheral for Israel would become a vital organ of existence. Written formerly on tablets of stone, the new age would be characterized by a covenant written on the heart of Israel (31:31-34). Nothing short of that could erase the sin that was written with an iron stylus upon Israel's heart (17:1-4). The sin and apostasy that had blackened her past would be outdistanced by God's grace, which would distinguish her future.”

Chisholm: “The new era to come would be highlighted by the inauguration of a new covenant with Israel and Judah (v. 31). It would differ from the old covenant, the Mosaic code, not in its demands, but in its effectiveness. The Mosaic law demanded allegiance to the Lord, demonstrated through obedience to its regulations. But it had no power, in and of itself, to make the people obey. Despite the Lord's love and care, the people violated the covenant (v. 32). The new covenant would operate differently. It would make the same essential demands on the people, but this time God's law, rather than being recorded on stone tablets, would be inscribed on the hearts and minds of God's people (v. 33). The point of the metaphor is that the people would have an inherent capacity and desire to obey God's demands. There would be no more need for exhortations to 'know the LORD,' for the people would automatically 'know' him as they experienced the forgiveness of sin (v. 34).”