Introduction

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:31 ESV). The Hebrew behind this phrase is found fourteen times in the book of Jeremiah. The first four tell of the coming judgment that Yahweh will bring upon Judah for their rebellion (7:32; 9:24; 16:14; 19:6). The next six times tell of Yahweh’s restoration of His people. He promises a king from the line of David (23:5). He promises a new exodus (23:7). He promises the restoration of Judah and Israel (30:3; 31:27). He promises a new covenant (31:31). He promises the perpetuity of the Davidic Dynasty in an everlasting covenant (33:14). The final four uses of the phrase introduce Yahweh’s promised judgment upon His people’s enemies (48:12; 49:2; 51:47; 51:52). In each of the instances of this phrase, what follows is a promise with a guaranteed fulfillment. Yahweh is making His plans known. His judgment will come upon His people, followed by His redemption of them and the judgment of their enemies. The new exodus will result in a new covenant with a righteous king reigning over a restored and unified people in fellowship with Yahweh.

This essay will focus on one of the promises following the phrase stated above, namely the promise of a new covenant. The central text is Jeremiah 31:31-37. In it, we find the only time the phrase “new covenant” is in the Old Testament. It will be demonstrated that Yahweh promises to sovereignly cut a new covenant with His people that is distinct from the covenant at Sinai, and its future fulfillment is certain. Three steps shall be taken to prove this thesis. First, I will present an overview of the book, including its historical context and the place Jeremiah 31:31-37 has in the book. Second, I will divide Jeremiah 31:31-37 into three subsections and exegete each verse. Third, I will summarize the New Testament’s understanding of the new covenant, paying careful attention to Hebrews’ exposition of it.

Context and Overview

Jeremiah had a long prophetic ministry to Judah and Jerusalem. He prophesied for over forty years, beginning in 627/626 BC during Josiah’s reign and ending sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem 586/587 BC.^[1] His ministry spanned the reign of five kings: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.^[2] His ministry was not easy. He encountered hard hearts, explicated harsh judgments, experienced hate-filled persecution, and eyeballed havoc in the destruction of Jerusalem.^[3] However, his book also contains many promises that evoke hope. Even amid political turmoil and personal persecution, Yahweh promised coming days when He would bring restoration and redemption to His wayward people.

The structure of the book is not agreed upon amongst commentators. Huey divides it into four parts: 1-25, 26-45, 46-51, and 52.^[4] Thomson seems to agree generally but leaves out large portions of text in his suggested structure, which is broken into three parts: Promised judgment: 1-25, the book of consolation: 30-33, and oracles against Judah’s enemies: 46-51.[5] Allen also seems to agree but suggest that typical outlines like that of Huey’s do not give enough attention to 30-33.^[6] It is not within the scope or intent of this essay to pick a side in the macrostructure of the book, but, interestingly, all seem to agree about the placement of Jeremiah 31:31-37 within what Thomson calls the book of consolation, Huey calls messages of hope, and Allen calls covenant centered hope and joy (30-33).[7]

Regardless of what this portion of Jeremiah is called, all agree that within it are hopeful promises of the redemption of God’s people despite the judgment that has come upon them for their wickedness. One of those promises is the new covenant. Chapters 30-31contain six strophes: Yahweh will reverse the misfortunes of His people (30:1-11), heal them of their wound (30:12-31:6), bring them from exile to inhabit the land (31:7-14), comfort them in their affliction (31:15-22), establish a new covenant (31:23-34), and it will not be undone (31:34-40).^[8] Chapters 32-33 are in prose and apply the themes found in 30-31.[9] Jeremiah is instructed to buy a field as a sign of the certainty of the promises in 30-31 while in prison, and Babylon lays siege upon Jerusalem (32). Jerusalem and Judah would fall to Babylon, but it will be rebuilt, and the Davidic line and Levitical priesthood that may seem to be lost will be restored (33). Even in a summary of the background and literary context of Jeremiah 31:31-37, judgment is not Yahweh’s final word to His people.

Days would come where Judah would be judged and sent into exile for their breaking of the old covenant. Nevertheless, days would also come when they would be redeemed. One aspect of that redemption is the establishment of the new covenant. A covenant, as I stated earlier, that Yahweh promises to sovereignly cut with His people that is distinct from the covenant at Sinai and its future fulfillment is certain.

Exegesis

The historical and literary context of Jeremiah 31:31-37 has been considered. It confirmed the thesis of this essay. Below I break the text into three subsections: The promise of the new covenant (31-32), the distinctiveness of the new covenant (33-34), and the certainty of the new covenant (35-37). I will explain and defend my interpretation of the verses within the subsections and show how they confirm the thesis that Yahweh promises to sovereignly cut a new covenant with His people that is distinct from the covenant at Sinai and its future fulfillment is certain.

The promise of the New Covenant

31:31. “Behold the days are coming” (ESV). This phrase, as I showed above, is used frequently by Jeremiah. It precedes a promise with certain results grounded in Yahweh’s sovereign rule over everything. Sometimes it precedes a promise of the judgment upon Yahweh’s people. Sometimes it precedes a promise of the redemption of Yahweh’s people. Sometimes it precedes a promise of the judgment of the enemies of Yahweh’s people.[10]

Jeremiah pens what is translated, “declares the Lord” (ESV), even more than the phrase above, 167 times total and six times in Jeremiah 31:31-37. It appears with the phrase above in 31:27, 31, and 38. This coupling leads me to take 31:31-37 as a unit of thought that is between two other units of thought. Commenting on the phrase “declares the Lord” and its use in Jeremiah, Mackay notes that it functions “somewhat like a signature to authenticate the message that has just been given by naming its originator. As this message comes from the Lord, the phrase embodies the claim that it is accurate and authoritative.”^[11] If this phrase accompanies a promise, then the fulfillment will certainly take place because Yahweh does not lie (Num 23:19; Titus 1:2; Heb 6:8).

“I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (ESV). Here we find what will come in the coming days, namely a new covenant. It is also clear that it comes from divine administration. Yahweh will cut this covenant. There is a debate about the nature of the newness of the new covenant. Mackay observes, “The concept of newness may be taken in two ways: either what is brand new (Exod. 1:8; Deut. 32:17; 1 Sam. 6:7), or what is new in the sense of renewed (Lam. 3:22–23).”^[12] In 31:22, the same Hebrew term translated “new” is used. It is coupled with the same Hebrew word translated “create” in Genesis 1:1. Thus, in verse 22, new means brand new. However, the Septuagint and Hebrews translate it with a word that can sometimes mean “renew or to be new only in the form,” as Allan does, following Calvin.[13] Considering the nearest preceding use (31:22), the following explanation (31:32-34), and the interpretation of the author of Hebrews leads me to conclude that the new covenant that is promised is different not only in degree but kind (Heb 8). Hays agrees when he writes, “God is declaring that he will establish a new kind of contractual relationship with His people. This is not a mere renewal of the old covenant. The old (Mosaic) covenant has been shattered and will be replaced with this new covenant.”^[14] This does not mean that the old covenant failed to accomplish God’s end for it. Like the other covenants preceding the new, it typified and promised the Messiah of the new covenant. The new covenant was materially promised under the Old but not formally established in the old covenant. John Gill gives a balanced interpretation of Israel and Judah in this context.

The persons with whom this covenant is said to be made are the house of Israel and of Judah; which was literally true of them in the first times of the Gospel, to whom the Gospel was first preached, and many of them were called by grace, and had an application of covenant-blessings made to them; and is mystically to be understood of God’s elect, whether Jews or Gentiles; the Israel after the spirit; Israelites indeed, Jews inwardly, even all that are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God, the middle wall of partition being broken down.^[15]

Hays, in his commentary on this phrase, notes that Israel, the northern tribes, had been destroyed by Assyria over a century before Jeremiah. From this, he concludes that their inclusion here implies that the new covenant will be with more than with the remnant of Judah.^[16] Put differently; in the new covenant, there will be a united people of God. In summary, verse 31 teaches that Yahweh will sovereignly establish a distinct covenant with His people with a certain future fulfillment.

31:32. “Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt” (ESV). The covenant made with their fathers is the covenant established at Sinai, sometimes called the old covenant (Ex 19:1-24:11). The new covenant that will be made with the united people of God will differ from the old covenant. A fundamental of the old covenant is having Yahweh as its Lord. He sovereignly established it and placed regulations on the people with whom He made it. To receive the blessings and not the curses of the Covenant, Israel had to trust Yahweh and obey the regulations of the Covenant (Jer 11:1-8). Failure to trust and obey Yahweh’s covenant regulations resulted in the reception of the Covenant curses.[17]

“My covenant that they broke” (ESV). Yahweh renders His judgment for Judah’s breaking of the covenant earlier in the book (Jer 11).

Again the Lord said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them (11:9-11).

Yahweh tells Jeremiah not to pray for Judah for their rebellion and idolatry (11:12-17). Israel, from its inception, had a history of not abiding by the terms of the covenant. Yahweh vividly describes their inability to do good by asserting that His people were able to do good as effectively as a leopard could change his spots or an Ethiopian his skin color (13:23).[18] They broke Yahweh’s Covenant. They could not keep His demands. They would go into exile. They did not need a restoration of the same covenant. They needed something new that could do something they could not do, like changing the spots of a leopard or the skin of an Ethiopian.

“Though I was their husband, declares the Lord” (ESV). Though Yahweh had taken them by the hand out of Egypt and metaphorically married them by taking them as his people, they betrayed Him. It is not God who is responsible for the judgment that comes upon them. He did not betray Him. Hebrews 8 seems to follow the Septuagint rendering of this phrase, “so I showed no concern for them” (Heb 8:9). John Owen gives a potential resolution by saying that the author of Hebrews loosely translates Old Testament texts throughout his work, seeking to convey the meaning of the Scripture instead of direct quotations. As such, he understands Jeremiah and the author of Hebrews to be saying that though Yahweh was a husband to them, they forsook him. He would thus do to them what a husband who had been betrayed would do. He would disregard them. Owen writes, “He provided no more for them as unto the enjoyment of the inheritance, he took them not home unto him in his habitation, his resting-place in the land of promise; but he suffered them all to wander, and bear their whoredoms in the wilderness until they were consumed.”^[19] Others reject such an attempt and seek no reconciliation between the two texts.[20] Regardless of where one comes down, the overall message of verse 32 is that the covenant Yahweh would make with His people would be different from the one made at Sinai. It would not be a renewal of the same thing. That covenant was broken. Nevertheless, days were coming when a new covenant that could affect miraculous change upon members of it was coming. The next subsection will show the nature of the distinctiveness of the new covenant.

The distinctiveness of the New Covenant

31:33. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord” (ESV). What follows is the reasons why the new covenant may be described as new and different. Before delving into these details, it is worth noticing that “[t]he five ‘I wills’ in the passage, together with references to ‘my covenant,’ ‘my law,’ and ‘my people,’ demonstrate clearly that as in the other major theological covenants, it would be God taking the initiative.”^[21]As the thesis states, Yahweh sovereignly will establish this covenant with His people.

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (ESV). Under the old covenant, the foundation of its laws were the ten commandments. They were the written-on tablets of stone (Exod 31:18; Deut 4:13). Under the new covenant, Yahweh would implant the law within his people and upon their hearts. Inner and heart obedience was expected under the old covenant but not guaranteed by it (Deut 6:6. See also Deut 10:16; 11:18; 30:2, 6, 10, 14).[22]

In contrast, the coming new covenant would both expect and produce inner obedience by Yahweh’s powerful production. This promise of the new covenant reverses the problem under the old covenant Jeremiah highlighted in 17:1. Judah’s sins had been written on their hearts, leading them into rebellion. Their heart was wicked and deceitful, and Yahweh saw it (17:9-10). Yahweh, in the new covenant, would give them not a new law, “but a new ability, from within, to live in accordance with the essence of the law God has given.”[23] This is consistent with and is more vividly expressed by Ezekiel when Yahweh promises that He “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (36:26-27 ESV).

“And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (ESV). This formula was not new. Yahweh created Israel as a nation and redeemed them from exile to be a people to Him and He a God to them (Jer 7:23; 11:4; Gen 17:7; Exod 6:7; 19:5-6; Lev 26:12; Deut 26:17-18). However, “[i]ts actualization had escaped Israel.”[24] The coming new covenant would produce the result that was lacking in the old covenant. Under the old covenant, Yahweh was faithful and gracious as Israel’s God. He exercised fatherly care for them. His loyalty, though, was not reciprocated. Adversely, in the new covenant, the people of God will reciprocate by being His people “because of the inward activity of God’s Spirit.” [25] The coming new covenant is distinct from the old in its inner application of the law of God to the hearts of the people and its guaranteeing of the reciprocal nature of God being a God to them and they a people to Him.

31:34. “And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord’” (ESV). Hays observes that the word translated “know” goes beyond a head or rational knowledge of God. It is a relational knowledge of Yahweh. “This verse is not saying that there will be no need at all for theological teaching or Bible study; rather, it is saying that under the new covenant there will be a new, internalized connection between God and his people that will facilitate their ability to know (worship and obey) him.”^[26] Wright adds, “Knowing God was a matter of life and practice, of character and behaviour, of reflecting the character of YHWH in human relationships as well as in faith and worship.”^[27] Jeremiah had complained, and Hosea, his older contemporary, agreed that Israel did not know Yahweh, as their rebellion and idolatry demonstrated (Hos 4:1; Jer 2:8; 4:22; 5:4–5; 9:3). Yahweh, in the brining of the new covenant, would make a people that know Him.

“For they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest, declares the LORD” (ESV). This knowledge of Yahweh will not only belong to the politically powerful, prophetically gifted, priestly called, or prosperity blessed. It will encompass the totality of God’s people. What was universally true of Israel’s sin under the old covenant would be universally true of the knowledge of Yahweh of God’s people under the new covenant (6:13; 8:10).

“For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (ESV). The above conditions and basis for the universal knowledge of Yahweh under the new covenant are His actions of forgiving and not remembering. Mackay observes that “[i]n the Mosaic covenant forgiveness of sin was presented through many intermediaries and sacrificial offerings, but in the new covenant forgiveness will be known about in such a way that all will genuinely recognize the Lord as their sovereign and provider because of the method by which he forgives and blots out iniquity.”^[28] To forgive here includes the “the cancellation of any merited punishment and the reestablishment of a close relationship.”[29] For God to not remember sins here means that He will not act upon His people as their sins deserve.[30] He will count the sins of His people against them no more under the new covenant. This signifies a total and eternal forgiveness of sin, resulting in an eternal relationship between Yahweh and His people. Such is what comes with Yahweh’s establishment of the new covenant. It is distinct from the old covenant in its efficacy to change hearts, produce universal knowledge of Yahweh, and forgive the sins of all its members. It will come as a result of Yahweh’s sovereign initiative.

The certainty of the New Covenant

31:35. “Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of hosts is his name” (ESV). Yahweh established and governs laws of nature, including sunlight, moonlight, starlight, and the waves of the sea (Gen 1:6-10; 16-18). These facts give great weight to what follows in verses 36 and 37. Yahweh is sovereign over these things, and the knowledge of and control He has over them will not and cannot pass from Him.

31:36. “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever” (ESV). Will the fixed order of all the things mentioned in verse 35 pass from before Yahweh? No, of course not. If they did, then so would the seed of Israel cease to be a nation of Yahweh’s people. However, since this order will not pass from before Yahweh, then neither will the seed of Israel.

Kaiser suggests that this text refutes what he calls supersessionism. Which, in his thinking, seems to convey that the Church replaces Israel. He does not cite or interact with the exegesis of any adherent of this conception.[31] My guess is he is rejecting covenant theology as taught within the Reformed tradition. If that is the case, he caricatures the position. Gill seems to represent what Kaiser is arguing against in the following quotation.

The Jews ceased not from being a nation through their captivity in Babylon, nor through their destruction by the Romans; they continue a distinct nation and people to this day, though scattered throughout the nations of the world: though this rather refers to the spiritual Israel, the holy nation and peculiar people; Christ will have a seed to serve him as long as the sun and moon endure; his church shall continue to the end of the world; it is built on a rock; and the gates of hell can’t prevail against it.^[32]

Mackay agrees with Gill when he writes, “Wherever those who are of the faith of Abraham are now found living in the covenant community which is Christ’s church upon earth, there the nation of the faithful is to be found, for they truly are those who are ‘before me.’”^[33] The New Testament allows for and even conveys Gill’s and Mackay’s understanding. The Church does not replace Israel but is the antitype and fulfillment of Israel through its union with Christ (Rom 4:13-24; 11:24-24; Gal. 3:7-9). Space does not allow for a detailed defense of this position, but it should be noted that there is disagreement here among Bible-believing Christians on the nature of Israel here.[34] However, what is not debated is the fact that a people under a new covenant will not cease from before Yahweh.

31:37. “Thus says the LORD: ‘If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all they have done, declares the LORD’” (ESV). The poetic oracle here teaches the same thing as the one in verse 37. Can mankind measure the heavens or explore the foundations of the earth? No, they cannot. The only way Yahweh’ would cast off His people is if they could. Thus Yahweh, through the institution of the new covenant described in verses 31-34, will forever have a people called here the offspring of Israel. He will not cast them off forever. A remnant will continue (Rom 11:5).

The exegesis of each verse of Jeremiah 31:31-37 above supports the thesis stated at the beginning. Yahweh promises to sovereignly cut a new covenant with His people that is distinct from the covenant at Sinai, and its future fulfillment is certain. A new covenant promise is made in verses 31-32 as Yahweh announces coming days when He will cut a new covenant. A new covenant distinctiveness is shown in verses 33-34 in the effects it produces in its members. A new covenant certainty is proclaimed in verses 35-37 and is as certain as Yahweh’s control of the creation and man’s limits to exhaust the knowledge of the universe. Yahweh’s sovereignty establishment is conveyed in the “I will” statements.

New Testament Considerations

The context and exegesis of Jeremiah 31:31-37 support the thesis of this essay. The New Testament teaching on the new covenant does too.[35] Jesus teaches that the new covenant was inaugurated at His death (Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:23-26). Paul describes the ministry of him and his companions as a new covenant ministry (2 Cor 3:1-18). The letter of recommendation Christians have is not that which is written on stones but that which is written on their hearts by the Holy Spirit. The language of Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 alludes to Jeremiah 31:33. New covenant ministry is the ministry of the Spirit in which through the gospel of Jesus Christ, sinners are reconciled to God. It is distinct from the old covenant ministry, which Paul sets in opposition to the spiritual ministry of the new covenant (3:4-18). Thus, the new covenant is distinct from the old covenant.

Hebrews 8-10 gives an expanded comparison of the old covenant and the new covenant. The new covenant Christ mediates is different from and superior to the old covenant because it is founded upon better promises (8:6-7). He quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 as proof (8:8-12). Then he concludes the quotation with the following words, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (8:13 ESV). Hays notices that “Hebrews 8:13 echoes Jeremiah 11 in declaring that the old covenant is ‘obsolete’; it has been replaced by the new covenant.”^[36] Only something distinct from a thing can replace that thing.

The New Testament confirms the thesis that, according to Jeremiah 31:31-37, Yahweh promises to sovereignly cut a new covenant with His people that is distinct from the covenant at Sinai, and its future fulfillment is certain. It confirms the certain promise that Christ’s death inaugurated it. It confirms that the distinction between it in the old covenant in that the ministry of the new covenant is distinct from the ministry of the old and that the establishment of the new covenant in Christ renders the old covenant obsolete.

Conclusion

This exegetical essay has focused on the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-37. It has been demonstrated that in this text, Yahweh promises to sovereignly cut a new covenant with His people that is distinct from the covenant at Sinai, and its future fulfillment is certain. Three steps were taken to prove this thesis. First, I presented an overview of the book, including its historical context and the place Jeremiah 31:31-37 has in the book. Second, I divided Jeremiah 31:31-37 into three subsections and exegeted each verse. Third, I summarized the New Testament’s understanding of the new covenant, paying careful attention to Hebrews’ exposition of it. Considering the New Testament teaching on the new covenant, we might say that the days that were coming when Yahweh would establish a new covenant have come in Christ and will be fully realized upon His second coming.

Behold, a new covenant has been inaugurated. Its mediator is Jesus. Its sacrifice was Jesus. All who trust in Him have had the law written on their hearts in regeneration and have had their sins entirely forgiven. He is the serpent slaying, nation blessing, and ever reigning seed. In Him, the shadows of the old covenant find their substance. Those who have been united to Him will be rescued from the final judgment and enter the final inheritance. Trust in Him and experience the promised blessings of the new covenant. Something new has come.

 

^[1]Christopher J. H. Wright, The Message of Jeremiah: Grace in the End, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2014), 17.

^[2]Walter C. Kaiser Jr. and Tiberius Rata, Walking the Ancient Paths: A Commentary on Jeremiah (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 5.

^[3] J. A. Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980), 94–95.

^[4]F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 16, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 24.

[5]Thomson, The Book of Jeremiah, 27-32.

^[6]Leslie C. Allen, Jeremiah: A Commentary, ed. William P. Brown, Carol A. Newsom, and David L. Petersen, First Edition., The Old Testament Library (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 12.

[7]Thomson, The Book of Jeremiah, 551; Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 259; Allen, Jeremiah, 330 and 361.

^[8]Kaiser Jr., Walking the Ancient Paths: A Commentary on Jeremiah, 337–338.

[9]Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 260.

[10]References are cited in the introduction.

^[11]John L. Mackay, Jeremiah: An Introduction and Commentary: Chapters 1–20, vol. 1, Mentor Commentaries (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2004), 102.

^[12]John L. Mackay, Jeremiah: An Introduction and Commentary: Chapters 21–52, vol. 2, Mentor Commentaries (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Mentor, 2004), 233.

[13]Allen, Jeremiah: A Commentary, 356.

^[14]J. Daniel Hays, Jeremiah and Lamentations, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016), 230.

^[15] John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 5, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810), 578; Also see Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah, ed. Christopher A. Hall, Thomas C. Oden, and Gerald L. Bray, trans. Michael Graves, Ancient Christian Texts (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2011), 201.

^[16]Hays, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 230.

[17]Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah, 580.

[18]Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah, 580-581.

^[19] John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ed. W. H. Goold, vol. 23, Works of John Owen (Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter, 1854), 131.

[20] Hays, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 231; Mackay, Jeremiah: An Introduction and Commentary: Chapters 21–52, 235.

^[21] Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 284.

[22]Wright, The Message of Jeremiah, 327.

[23]Wright, 328.

[24]Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah, 581.

[25]Mackay, Jeremiah: An Introduction and Commentary: Chapters 21–52, 237.

^[26]Hays, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 231.

^[27]Wright, The Message of Jeremiah: Grace in the End, 329.

^[28]Mackay, Jeremiah: An Introduction and Commentary: Chapters 21–52, 238.

[29]Hays, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 232.

[30]Wright, The Message of Jeremiah, 331.

[31]Kaiser, Walking the Ancient Paths, 373.

^[32]Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, 580.

^[33]Mackay, Jeremiah: An Introduction and Commentary: Chapters 21–52, 240.

[34]For an extended and balanced discussion of the covenantal view see Wright, The Message of Jeremiah, 334-339.

[35]The New Testament, as inspired Scripture, provides us with inerrant commentary and insight into the fulfillment of Old Testament types and prophecy. That is not to say that we should not understand an Old Testament text in its covenantal, canonical, historical, or literary context, but that the Holy Spirit who inspired the prophets also inspired the apostles, and as God He will not lie, nor can He contradict Himself. This concept, coupled with the idea of progressive revelation, makes considering the New Testament discussion of the new covenant profitable and necessary for a fuller understanding of it.

^[36] Hays, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 232.