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Jeremiah

Jeremiahchapter 31

40 verses · BSBJeremiah book hub →

Speaks with:Jeremiah 33×5Jeremiah 31×5Jeremiah 50×5Jeremiah 30×4Deuteronomy 1×2Isaiah 54×2

Summary

Chapter summary

'I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee' (31:3). Vineyards planted again on the mountains of Samaria; watchmen crying, Let us go up to Zion; blind, lame, and the woman with child brought home by rivers of waters. 'A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children' (31:15): Matthew 2 quotes it over Bethlehem's infants. Then the new covenant: the law written in the inward parts, none teaching his neighbor, 'for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest… and their sin will I remember no more' (31:31-34), quoted whole in Hebrews 8. Israel ceases to be a nation only when sun, moon, and sea depart.

Context

Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview

  • A. 1–14 Loved with an Everlasting Love: Dancing, and Watchmen on Ephraim
  • B. 15–22 Rachel Weeping, and a Woman Shall Encompass a Man
  • C. 23–30 Every Man Shall Die for His Own Iniquity
  • D. 31–40 A New Covenant Written on the Heart

The outline

  1. A.Loved with an Everlasting Love: Dancing, and Watchmen on Ephraimvv. 1 to 14

    Read vv. 1 to 14 →

  2. B.Rachel Weeping, and a Woman Shall Encompass a Manvv. 15 to 22

    Read vv. 15 to 22 →

  3. C.Every Man Shall Die for His Own Iniquityvv. 23 to 30

    Read vv. 23 to 30 →

  4. D.A New Covenant Written on the Heartvv. 31 to 40

    Read vv. 31 to 40 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

A new covenant

Pattern

Jeremiah promises a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, its law written in the heart and its sins remembered no more. The Lord takes its word for his own table, this cup is the new testament in my blood, and Hebrews quotes the promise at full length.

It is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. The covenant is made with named Israel and Judah in the text itself, and the church drinks of its cup at every communion; both facts stand in the words, and the page shows both.

  1. Jeremiah 31:31-34 you are here

    A new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah

    The law in their inward parts; their sin remembered no more.

  2. Luke 22:20

    This cup is the new testament in my blood

  3. 1 Corinthians 11:25

    The cup handed on to the church

  4. Hebrews 8:8-13

    The promise quoted at full length

    In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old.

The world behind this chapter

Jeremiah 31
When
The last years of the kingdom, looking past the fall · c. 588–586 BC
Where
The hills of Ephraim and Samaria in the north, the staging camp at Ramah, and a rebuilt Jerusalem
Who first heard it
Exiles from both the northern tribes and Judah, told they were going home

The history

Ramah, where Rachel is heard weeping, was a real assembly point. Chapter 40 records that prisoners bound for Babylon were collected and chained at Ramah, a few miles north of Jerusalem, before the column moved out. Rachel was buried in that area and was the mother of Benjamin, whose territory this was. The picture is of a mother at the roadside watching the transports leave.

The restoration is described in farm terms. Vineyards will be planted again on the hills of Samaria, and the planters will enjoy the fruit — a reference to the law that new vines were not harvested for several years, so planting a vineyard is what people do when they expect to stay. Watchmen on the hills of Ephraim will call people up to Zion, meaning the northern tribes rejoining the pilgrim festivals after centuries away.

The proverb about the fathers eating sour grapes and the children's teeth being set on edge was current in that generation — it is quoted in Ezekiel too. People were saying they were being punished for Manasseh's sins. The answer is that each will die for his own sin.

At the centre is the new covenant: the law written on hearts instead of tablets, God's people knowing him from the least to the greatest, and sins remembered no more. The chapter closes with a surveyor's walk around a rebuilt city, naming the corner tower, the hill of Gareb, Goah, the valley of the dead bodies and the Horse Gate — the sacred boundary drawn around ground that was still smoking.

What it meant to them

For the first hearers the astonishing part is who is included. The northern tribes had been gone for over a century and were widely written off. This chapter has them singing on the height of Zion.

The new covenant answered the failure the whole book had been documenting. Every reform had been external — a scroll read, altars torn down, a fast proclaimed — and every one had worn off. The promise is a covenant written where habits actually live.

Sources cited

  • Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Jeremiah
  • Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 31. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 15 · A picture of Christ

Rachel weeping for her children

Matthew 2:17→

Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

MannaFest topical index

v. 15 · Written to them

Rachel weeping for her children

topics/loss→

MannaFest topical index

v. 31 · The covenant enacted

New covenant oracle: 'I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel' (Jer 31:31-34). Arc 5 sign = the cup.

covenant new→

text (Jer 31:31, PD)

v. 31 · Quoted here

'I will make a new covenant': the longest OT quotation in the NT; Hebrews' pivot from old tent to new.

Hebrews 8:8→

But God found fault with the people and said: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 31 · A covenant thread

The promised new covenant (Jer 31) -> its institution in the cup; membership scope (Israel/church) is where the framings diverge.

Luke 22:20→

In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.

quote-explicit. framework: both affirm, scope contested

v. 33 · A covenant thread

'A new heart... my spirit within you' (Ezek 36) parallels the internalized-law promise (Jer 31) - the two great new-covenant oracles interpret each other.

Ezekiel 36:26→

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

bt-consensus. Hays: thematic coherence, volume

v. 33 · Quoted here

'I will put my laws into their hearts': new-covenant reprise proving the new covenant perfects worshippers.

Hebrews 10:16→

“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

This page draws on C. F. Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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