Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
the days.
Jeremiah 31:27 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
Jeremiah 30:3 For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
I.
Jeremiah 32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
Ezekiel 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
with.
Jeremiah 50:4,5 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God…
Galatians 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
when I will make a new covenant
The concept of a "new covenant" is pivotal in biblical theology. It signifies a departure from the old covenant made at Sinai, which was based on the Law given to Moses. This new covenant promises a different kind of relationship between God and His people, one that is not based on adherence to the Law but on a transformed heart and spirit. This is further elaborated in the New Testament, particularly in Hebrews 8:8-12, where the new covenant is associated with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who fulfills and establishes it through His death and resurrection.
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
The mention of both the house of Israel and the house of Judah indicates the reunification of the divided kingdoms. Historically, after Solomon's reign, the kingdom of Israel split into the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah). This prophecy promises a restoration and unity of God's people, transcending the historical divisions. It also points to the inclusivity of the new covenant, which, while initially directed at Israel and Judah, extends to all nations through Christ, as seen in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and the inclusion of Gentiles in the early church (Acts 10).
- The word invites us to stop and stare at something only God can do. Isaiah 7:14 shouts, “Behold, the virgin will conceive,” and John 1:29 points to Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Here, God signals that what follows is history-shaping news.
- Not wishful thinking but real dates on God’s calendar. Jeremiah 23:5 promises, “The days are coming… when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch,” and Amos 9:13 echoes the phrase. Acts 2:17, quoting Joel, shows that when the appointed days arrive, they arrive right on time.
- The covenant is backed by Yahweh’s own signature. Isaiah 55:11 guarantees His word never fails, and Hebrews 6:13 notes that when God swears by Himself, it is impossible for Him to lie. Every syllable is unbreakable.
- God is the sole architect: “I will make.” Like Genesis 15, He handles the covenant terms.
- Jesus announced its inauguration: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20).
- Distinctives spelled out in Jeremiah 31:33-34:
• Law written on hearts (Ezekiel 36:26-27; 2 Corinthians 3:3)
• Personal knowledge of God for all believers (John 17:3; 1 John 2:27)
• Complete forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 8:12; 10:16-17)
- Paul calls us “servants of a new covenant” (2 Corinthians 3:6), and Hebrews 8:8-13 ties that covenant to Israel’s future as well.
- Both northern and southern kingdoms are named, promising reunification (Ezekiel 37:22).
- Gentile believers are grafted in without displacing Israel’s destiny (Romans 11:17-29).
- Hosea 1:10-11 foresees one people under one head, while Ephesians 2:14-16 shows Christ making believing Jews and Gentiles “one new man.”
Jeremiah 31:31 calls us to look ahead to definite days when God Himself, by His unfailing word, forges a brand-new, grace-filled covenant. Rooted in Christ’s blood, it writes His law on hearts, offers intimate knowledge of Him, secures total forgiveness, reunites Israel, and welcomes Gentiles into the same saving promise—all on the rock-solid faithfulness of the Lord.
(31) I will make a new covenant . . .--Both in itself, and as the germ of the future of the spiritual history of mankind, the words are of immense significance. It was to this that the Lord Jesus directed the thoughts of His disciples, as the prophecy which, above all other prophecies, He had come to fulfil by the sacrifice of Himself. In that "New Covenant" in His blood, which He solemnly proclaimed at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:28), and which was commemorated whenever men met to partake of the Supper of the Lord (1Corinthians 11:25), there was latent the whole argument of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 8-10), the whole Gospel of justification by faith as proclaimed by St. Paul (Galatians 3:15-17). From it the Church took the title of the New Covenant, the New Testament, which it gave to the collected writings of the Apostolic age. This title in its turn gave the name of the Old Testament to the collected writings which recorded how "in sundry times and divers manners" God had spoken in time past to Israel.The promise is too commonly dealt with as standing by itself, without reference to the sequence of thought in which we find it placed. That sequence, however, is not hard to trace. The common proverb about the sour grapes had set the prophet thinking on the laws of God's dealings with men. He felt that something more was needed to restrain men from evil than the thought that they might be transmitting evil to their children's children--something more even than the thought of direct personal responsibility, and of a perfectly righteous retribution. And that something was to be found in the idea of a law--not written on tablets of stone, not threatening and condemning from without, and denouncing punishment on the transgressors and their descendants, but written on heart and spirit (2Corinthians 3:3-6). It is noticeable, as showing how like thoughts were working in the minds of the two prophets, that in Ezekiel also the promise of a "new heart and new spirit" comes in close sequence upon the protest against the adage about the "children's teeth being set on edge" (Ezekiel 18:31). In the words for "saith the Lord" we have the more solemn word which carries with it the announcement as of an oracle from God. . . .
Verses 31-34. - The new covenant. A prophecy which stands out from the rest of Jeremiah by its evangelical character, in which it strongly reminds us of parts of the second half of Isaiah. The doctrine of the covenant is "the thread which binds together the hopes and the fears of the prophet, his certainty of coming woe, his certainty of ultimate blessing." A covenant was granted of old, but that covenant had on man's side been broken. Still "the gifts and calling of God are not to be retracted" (Romans 11:29); and Jeremiah felt that the very nature of God guaranteed the renewal of the covenant on a new basis. "Covenant" is, no doubt, an unfortunate rendering. The Hebrew word so rendered means, primarily, a decision or appointment, and there is a whole group of passages in the Old Testament which requires this meaning (see the present writer's note, in 'The Prophecies of Isaiah,' on Isaiah 42:6). We retain it, however, as that with which the reader is familiar, and only remind him that God is everything, and man nothing, in fixing the terms of the transaction. The characteristics of the new covenant are three:(1) The relation between God and his people is protected from all risk by God himself making the people what he would have them be.
(2) "Whereas, in the case of the old, the law of duty was written on tables of stone, in the case of the new the law is to be written on the heart; whereas, under the old, owing to the ritual character of the worship, the knowledge of God and his will was a complicated affair, in which men generally were helplessly dependent on a professional class, under the new, the worship of God would be reduced to the simplest spiritual elements, and it would be in every man's power to know God at first hand, the sole requisite for such knowledge as would then be required being a pure heart." And
(3) "whereas, under the old, the provisions for the cancelling of sin were very unsatisfactory, and utterly unfit to perfect the worshipper as to conscience, by dealing thoroughly with the problem of guilt, under the new God would grant to his people a real, absolute, and perennial forgiveness, so that the abiding relation between him and them should be as if sin had never existed" (Dr. A.B. Bruce, in The Expositor, January, 1880, pp. 70, 71). Comp. the abolition of the ark indicated in Jeremiah 3:16. - The inspired author of Hebrews tells us (Hebrews 8:6-13), speaking generally, that this promise delivered through Jeremiah was fulfilled in the gospel. But it must be remembered that the gospel has not yet taken form outwardly, except in a comparatively meagre sense. If the Jews as a nation (that is, the better part or kernel of Israel) should embrace the gospel, not necessarily in the logical expression familiar to the West, but in its essential facts and truths, we should see quite another embodiment of the promise, and feel the spiritual impulse in ourselves as we have not yet done. It seems appropriate, in conclusion, to quote a finely expressed passage from De Quincey's exposition of the New Testament term μετάνοια. Without pledging ourselves to the absolute correctness of his explanation of that word, his language may be well applied to Jeremiah's prophecy. "What would have been thought of any prophet, if he should have promised to transfigurate the celestial mechanics; if he had said, 'I will create a new pole star, a new zodiac, and new laws of gravitation;' briefly, 'I will make new earth and new heavens'? And yet a thousand times more awful it was to undertake the writing Of new laws upon the spiritual conscience of man."
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