Jeremiah 31:32
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It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt— a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
This chapter goes on with the good words and comfortable words which we had in the chapter before, for the encouragement of the captives, assuring them that God would in due time restore them or their children to their own land, and make them a great and happy nation again, especially by sending them the Messiah, in whose kingdom and grace many of these promises were to have their full accomplishment. I. They shall be restored to peace and honour, and joy and great plenty (Jer 31:1-14). II. Their sorrow for the loss of their children shall be at an end (Jer 31:15-17). III. They shall repent of their sins, and God will graciously accept them in their repentance (Jer 31:18-20). IV. They shall be multiplied and increased, both their children and their cattle, and not be cut off and diminished as they had been (Jer 31:21-30). V. God will renew his covenant with them, and enrich it with spiritual blessings (Jer 31:31-34). VI. These blessings shall be secured to theirs after them, even to the spiritual seed of Israel for ever (Jer 31:35-37). VII. As an earnest of this the city of Jerusalem shall be rebuilt (Jer 31:38-40). These exceedingly great and precious promises were firm foundations of hope and full fountains of joy to the poor captives; and we also may apply them to ourselves and mix faith with them.
Open source ↗31:32-34 The key difference between the new covenant and the one God made with their ancestors is that the Lord would write his instructions deep within his people’s hearts (see Heb 10:16). The old covenant was external and legal, whereas the new covenant would be a vital, person-to-person relationship. The new covenant would emphasize the redeeming, transforming change of an individual’s spiritual nature.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place.”
He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today.
Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,
Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD.
Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and offer raisin cakes to idols.”
“Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.
So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked.
There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of the land of Egypt.