ESV Global Study Bible :: Footnotes for Jeremiah 31

Jer. 31:1–40 This chapter includes the most famous passage in Jeremiah, the promise of a new covenant (vv. 31–40). Leading up to that passage, God promises Israel that they will be his people (vv. 1–14), he will have mercy on weary Israel (vv. 15–26), and he will make Israel secure (vv. 27–30).

Jer. 31:1 At that time. In the latter days (30:24), God will reunite Israel with Judah under his covenantal leadership.

Jer. 31:2 Israel’s exile experience mirrors the exodus era. In both, those who escaped death found grace and rest in the desert. After exile, Israel will again follow God (2:1–3).

Jer. 31:4 virgin Israel. The northern kingdom (vv. 5–6).

Jer. 31:9 God will provide for all their needs as the exiles return. father to Israel. See Ex. 4:22–23; Hos. 11:1–9.

Jer. 31:10 God, Israel’s great shepherd (Isa. 40:11), will gather and keep (guard) his sheep.

Jer. 31:13 When God restores Israel’s lives he will also restore their joy. God will comfort them. See Isa. 40:1.

Jer. 31:15 Ramah. Five miles (8 km) north of Jerusalem and on the route to exile (40:1). Rachel. Jacob’s second and favorite wife (Gen. 29:30). Joseph was her son and the father of Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen. 30:22–24; 41:50–52). Rachel was buried near Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19–20). Jeremiah focuses on the grief of the exile, as if it touched Rachel herself. See Matt. 2:18.

Jer. 31:16–17 God promises that Rachel’s children will return from exile.

Jer. 31:18 Ephraim recognizes God’s discipline (see Lev. 26:14–26; Deut. 30:1–10) and pleads for restoration (Lam. 5:21–22).

Jer. 31:21 Israel should mark the way they went out (to exile), for they will return on the same road.

Jer. 31:22 How long will you waver, that is, how long will you wait to fulfill the prophecy of v. 6? faithless daughter. What Ephraim has been in the past. a new thing. A new beginning (Isa. 43:19; 48:7).

Jer. 31:23–25 Jeremiah addresses Judah, who will soon join Israel in exile. God will restore Judah and its rejoicing, just as he will Israel’s (vv. 2–7).

Jer. 31:28 At that time God will be as determined to plant and build as he was to tear down and destroy (see 1:10).

Jer. 31:29–30 sour grapes . . . teeth are set on edge. This proverb was apparently common (see Lam. 5:7; Ezek. 18:2). The negation of the proverb (they shall no longer say) means that no one will suffer for the sins of others, because national rebellion against God will cease. The remnant will become the majority.

Jer. 31:31–34 God’s people have a long-standing problem. Most are circumcised in body but so few are circumcised in heart (that is, truly know the Lord). God will remedy this problem. The benefits that God will provide—knowledge of the Lord and forgiveness—were all offered in the OT but all-too-rarely accepted.

Jer. 31:31 The new covenant will provide a fresh start for Israel and Judah, the first recipients of both the old and now the new covenant (see note on vv. 31–34). This is the only OT passage to use the specific term “new covenant”; for NT uses of the phrase, see Luke 22:20; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:8–12.

Jer. 31:32 This new covenant will be different in that it will not be broken, as Israel and Judah broke the first one despite God’s faithfulness as a good husband.

Jer. 31:33 Rather than writing the law on tablets and scrolls (see Ex. 34:1; Deut. 31:9–13) and asking the people to internalize it (Deut. 6:4–9), God will write it on their hearts from the start. He will be the God of this new covenant, just as he was for the old covenant partners who loved him.

Jer. 31:35–36 God gives a fixed order to the natural creation. It is just as impossible for the new covenant (vv. 31–34) to cease as it is for the natural order to cease.

Jer. 31:38–40 Jerusalem will soon be destroyed, yet God will eventually rebuild it. When it is totally sacred to the Lord (Zech. 14:20–21), it will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever. At that time Jerusalem will be Zion, the new Jerusalem, the city where God lives with his people in the permanent absence of sin (Isa. 4:2–6; 25:6–12; 65:17–25).