Jeremiah · Old Testament · Jeremiah 31:31–34
The New Covenant with Israel and Judah
The Story
The LORD declares that a day is coming when He will make a new covenant with both the people of Israel and Judah. He immediately contrasts this new covenant with the old one He made with their ancestors when He brought them out of Egypt — a covenant they broke, even though He had loved them as a husband loves his wife. The new covenant will be fundamentally different in its nature, not written on tablets of stone but placed within His people in a far more intimate way. The LORD says: "I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." Under this new covenant, there will be no need for neighbors or relatives to instruct one another to know the LORD, because everyone — from the least to the greatest — will already know Him. The passage closes with what stands as the foundation of the entire promise: "And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins."
The Message
The old covenant, written on stone, was broken by the people — but the new covenant God promises cannot be broken in the same way, because He writes it on the heart rather than on tablets. The defining feature of this new covenant is not human obedience but divine forgiveness — God removes the sin that made the old covenant fail. This is a promise initiated entirely by God, from His own will and on His own terms.