Jeremiah 31 Footnotes

31:4 Jeremiah appears to be contradicting Am 5:2, which says that “Virgin Israel will never rise again.” Several considerations suggest that no contradiction is involved. First, the verse in Amos was a lament, not a prophecy (it is in what some scholars identify as a “lament” meter). Second, the context in Am 5:4-7 was an appeal to Israel to return to the Lord, indicating that repentance remained a possibility. Finally, Jeremiah was taking the long-range view. Although Ephraim (Israel, the northern kingdom) had been defeated and overrun—and though Judah would also be defeated and go into exile—in the future the Jews will repent and be restored to the land, including territory formerly part of Ephraim (Jr 31:18-21).

31:15 According to Mt 2:17, this prophecy was “fulfilled” when Herod had the infants killed after the birth of Jesus. Jeremiah was not writing about the Messiah, but about the exile. This does not mean that Matthew did not understand Jeremiah’s meaning. Rather, it has to do with Matthew’s understanding of what it was to “fulfill” Scripture.

31:26 Critics propose that a later scribe accidentally inserted this verse, or that it was a fragment of a longer description of how these speeches came about, the rest of which has dropped out. However, there is no valid reason to doubt that the verse belongs here. Jeremiah would have found this message of hope “pleasant” after his other messages of judgment. And it indicated the method of revelation for the preceding material, either the previous three verses or the whole prophecy from 30:1. A dream was one method of hearing from God (see note on 23:28), even though Jeremiah prophesied against those who falsified the method.

31:31-33 God said the new covenant will not be like the old one. This does not imply that the old covenant was inadequate, for the new covenant would involve the same core stipulation of full allegiance to God. Jeremiah used the same summary description for the “new” covenant (“I will be their God, and they will be my people”) that the Lord gave for the “old” covenant (see Ex 6:7). While the Bible speaks of a “new covenant” (v. 31), it is worth noting that the nuance, in English, between “new” and “renewed” may not be a feature of biblical languages; something that is “renewed” is simply called “new.” What is different with this “new” covenant is that its law is written on the “hearts” of the people (v. 33). Keeping the covenant will not be through actions in conformity to an external standard but will arise from the inner motivation of a people bonded to their God. This agrees with Jl 2:28, where the prophet declared that the Spirit of God will dwell in people. The people generally failed to keep the old covenant, so in the new covenant God will, even more than in the past, take the initiative (Jr 31:18; 32:40; Ezk 36:24-27; Eph 2:4-5). Ultimately, he did this through the death and resurrection of Jesus (Lk 22:20; 1Co 11:25).

31:34 That a just God would “never again remember” the sins that his people have committed may not seem right. But biblical language and thought are concrete; to remember something does not mean to entertain an exclusively “mental” process; it means to take action in accord with the memory. This is what the Lord declares he will not do. It is no injustice that he will not allow his people’s past sins to influence his current and future relationship with them; it is the mystery of substitutionary atonement.

Scripture is consistent in its teaching. The sacrificial system of the OT was based on the premise that there is forgiveness of sins through the shedding of blood (Lv 17:11). But such sacrifices, involving the deaths of animals, were inadequate in and of themselves. They were to be fulfilled in Christ, the perfect sacrifice (Heb 10:1-10) which God himself provided (Rm 3:24-25; Heb 13:11-12; 1Jn 2:1-2). Thus, all who relied on blood for atonement in the OT were ultimately looking forward to Jesus the Messiah. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, God is righteous in passing over the sins of people—past, present, and future (Rm 3:24-26). He removes our sin far from us (Ps 103:12; Jr 33:8; 50:20; Mic 7:18; Rm 11:27) and remembers it no more (Is 43:25; Heb 10:17).