Jeremiah 30-31: The New Covenant and the Land

In this section of Jeremiah the phrase “The word that came to Jeremiah from Yhwh” (30:1) marks off the beginning of a major section. The same phrase occurs in 32:1, marking off the next major section.  Within Jeremiah 30:1-31:40 the phrase “Thus says Yhwh, the God of Israel” marks the beginning of the prologue (30:1) and epilogue (31:23). Between these are seven songs each marked out by the phrase “Thus says Yhwh.” After the Epilogue there are three promises each marked out by the phrase “Behold, the days are coming, declaration of Yhwh” (31:27, 31, 38). After the second promise, there are two guarantees marked out by the phrase, “Thus says Yhwh.” All this is to say that the new covenant promises that get quoted in the NT are part of a highly structured section of Jeremiah. 

30:1-4	Preamble: Promise of restoration to the land
30:5-11	First Song: Israel’s distress; anticipation of the deliverance and service to Yhwh and the Messiah
30:12-17	Second Song: Yhwh will heal Israel’s incurable wound
30:18-31:1	Third Song: The restoration of Jerusalem under the Messiah; Israel will be God’s people, and He will be their God
31:2-6	Fourth Song: Restoration of the remanent, restoration of the land, Yhwh’s reign from Zion
31:7-14	Fifth Song: Call for rejoicing; announcing Israel’s restoration to the nations
31:15	Sixth Song: Israel’s mourning
31:16-22	Seventh Song: Yhwh will have compassion on Israel and restore her not only to the land but to Himself
31:23-26	Epilogue: The blessing of restoration to the land
31:27-30	First Promise: Yhwh will watch over Israel “to build and to plant”
31:31-34	Second Promise: Yhwh will cut a new covenant with Israel and Judah in place of the Mosaic covenant; it will internalize the law and provide for regeneration and forgiveness
31:35-36	First Guarantee: These promises are as sure as the fixed order of creation
31:37	Second Guarantee: These promises as sure as the immensity of creation
31:38-40	Third promise: Jerusalem will be rebuilt never to be destroyed again

Note: This structure and the wording “preamble,” “song,” “epilogue,” “promise,” and “guarantee” are taken from Andrew Shead, A Mouth Full of Fire: The Word of God in the Words of Jeremiah, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2012), 189. I depart from Shead in taking 31:15 as its own song rather than as the beginning of the final song and in dividing his single “guarantee” into two.

It is notable that the preamble (30:1-4) to this section focuses on restoration of Israel and Judah back to the land that Yhwh gave to their fathers. 

The theme of restoration from the land shows up in the first song, third song, fourth, fifth song, and seventh song. And it is the emphasis of the epilogue. The sixth song is a brief song of weeping to which the seventh is a response. The second song seems to be about spiritual renewal rather than physical renewal. The seventh song combines the two. 

The first promise uses the metaphor of seed to portray Israel and Judah growing up in the land. The third promise is about the rebuilding of Jerusalem. This has to be eschatological given that the valley of Hinnom is said to be sanctified and the city is said to never again be overthrown.

In the following section, Jeremaih 32:1-33:13 Jeremiah was told to buy a field while Jerusalem was under siege. Jeremiah recognized that it is because of Israel’s violation of the Mosaic covenant that Babylon will conquer Judah (32:23-24; cf. 32:29-35). But God reiterates the new covenant promise of the restoration of exiled Israel to the land—at which point they will fear God (32:36-44; 33:6-13). The transformation of heart indicates that this restoration is eschatological rather than merely post-exilic. In addition, the idea that Jeremiah would received the land purchased presupposes resurrection and also pushes to an eschatological fulfillment. 

 The emphasis on restoration to the land (along with the phrasing “house of Israel and house of Judah”) require that the new covenant promise in these chapters be focused on the nation of Israel specifically rather than the people of God most broadly. This is confirmed by the fact that the nations are mentioned in these chapters in distinction from Israel and Judah (30:11; 31:7, 10; 33:9). In addition we have the specific statement in 31:36 “If this fixed order departs from before me, declaration of Yhwh, then shall the seed of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.”

None of this is to deny that the redeemed from the nations have also been made party to the new covenant. From the very beginning, God’s covenant’s with Israel have been for the sake of nations (Gen 12:3; 18:18; 22:18). Jeremiah himself anticipated Gentile inclusion in these blessings (Jer 3:17-18; 4:2; 12:14-17; 16:19; 46:26). In fact, some of these texts are land promises to the nations. See also Isa 19:25; 54-55 (esp. 54:2-3; 55:5 with attention to the covenantal context of these verses) and Zeph 3:9 with Isa 2:2-4; 11:10;  42:1, 4; 56:7; Eze 36:23, 36; 37:28; 39:7; Mic 4:1-3. All of these texts point to Gentile inclusion in the new covenant.

The New Testament is clear that the new covenant is now in force for both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus’s death, as memorialized in the Lord’s Supper, cut the new covenant (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). Paul was a minister of the new covenant (2 Cor. 3:6). Hebrews 8 teaches that the new covenant has already replaced the Mosaic covenant. Romans 11:7 and Ephesians 2:11ff. reveal that Gentile branches were grafted in and that believing Jews and Gentiles have become one new man. 

These passages do not teach that ethnic distinctions have been done away. Nor do they cancel the specific land promises made to Israel as part of the promised new covenant. Passages like Hebrews 8 indicate that the new covenant promises regarding relationship with Yhwh are now being equally enjoyed by believing Jews and Gentiles as members of the new covenant together. But the new covenant promises regarding the restoration of Israel and Judah to the land are so pervasive and emphatic that they cannot be dismissed. In the structure of Jeremiah 30-33, the promises regarding relationship with Yhwh serve the land promises since it is only when the people know God and love his law that they can be sure to remain in the land. This is not to say that the land promises are more important than promises regarding relationship to Yhwh. Far from it. But, in the context of Jeremiah, they are intertwined. 

Does this mean, then, that there are new covenant land promises to which Gentiles are not party? In that the specific land of Israel is promised to a reunified Israel and Judah, yes. But as noted above, there are land promises to Gentiles in the new covenant as well. The new earth is the fulfillment of the land promises—not as an abstraction but with Israel and the nations all receiving lands.

Some might see the land element of the new covenant as the husk which falls away with the spiritual promises being the kernel. To be sure, the relationship between God and his people is central. But God has always intended for his people to be embodied and emplaced. Embodiment and emplacement are not a husk that can be discarded. That is a gnostic tendency, and Jeremiah 30-31 forecloses that way of thinking for the Christian.