“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”Read the surrounding chapter
Time, place, and setting
- Time
- The opening places Jeremiah’s call in Josiah’s thirteenth year and extends the named reigns through Jerusalem’s captivity. Later narratives address the remnant after the fall, while the concluding chapter includes Jehoiachin’s release in his thirty seventh year of captivity. Jeremiah 1:1 to 3; 40:1 to 52:34. 1
- Place
- Anathoth in Benjamin, Jerusalem, Babylon and Egypt are named settings. The exile letter travels from Jerusalem to Babylon; later remnant narratives move through Mizpah toward Egypt. Jeremiah 1:1; 29:1 to 3; 40:1 to 43:7. 1
- Setting
- Prophetic speeches, laments, sign acts, letters and narrative accounts appear together. Named audiences include Judah’s kings, temple worshippers, Babylonian exiles and people remaining after Jerusalem’s fall. Jeremiah 7; 21 to 24; 29; 40 to 44. 1
Covenant, a pledged relationship. The historical lexicon lists the promised new covenant at Jeremiah 31:31. 2
The passage names the houses of Israel and Judah, recalls the covenant broken after the Exodus, and promises inward instruction, knowledge of the Lord and forgiveness. Those features explain this particular occurrence. Jeremiah 31:31 to 34. 1
Jeremiah 1:4 to 19: A commission with two movements
The call begins with divine initiative and Jeremiah’s objection about speaking. The Lord supplies the words and promises presence, then defines a commission involving destruction and renewal. The calling establishes the basis of Jeremiah’s public commission. 3 The paired movements of uprooting and planting recur later in the book. They help explain why the prophet who warns severely can also purchase a field as a sign of hope. The assurance of presence belongs within a vocation that will meet substantial resistance. Jeremiah 1:4 to 19; 32:1 to 15. 1
The title’s setting and the book’s formation are related but distinct matters. Formation proposals account differently for the collection’s diverse forms. 5 The passage can be explained through its actual dialogue, commission and images while those larger questions remain open. Jeremiah’s objection is followed by the Lord’s reply; the final instruction prepares him to face rulers and people. The scene does not describe a vocation Jeremiah invented for himself. Jeremiah 1:1 to 19. 1
Jeremiah 7:1 to 16: The sanctuary and the neighbour
The speech addresses worshippers at the temple gate. Its repeated confidence in the temple is confronted by specific wrongdoing. The appeal for change develops into an accusation of wrongdoing. 6 Justice between neighbours, care for the stranger, fatherless and widow, and refusal of innocent blood are part of the demanded response. Shiloh then supplies a warning about a former religious centre. The passage challenges sanctuary confidence that shelters continuing harm. Jeremiah 7:1 to 15. 1
Jesus later receives the den of thieves accusation in the temple. The quotation belongs within Mark’s account of the temple action. 21 This is an explicit Christian connection rather than a resemblance inferred from a shared mood. Jeremiah 7:16 also restricts the prophet’s intercession in a particular setting. The intercession restriction belongs beside its surrounding prophetic speeches. 22 Its force should be retained alongside the later requested prayer in chapter 42, keeping the differing moments clear. Jeremiah 7:11 to 16; 42:1 to 6; Mark 11:15 to 19. 1
Jeremiah 11:18 to 12:6 and 20:7 to 18: Costly speech
The threatened prophet compares himself with a lamb unaware of a plot. His appeal asks the Lord to examine the situation, while the following dialogue questions the prosperity of the wicked. The confessions allow vulnerability and protest to enter prayer. 11 Chapter 20 adds humiliation, reproach and the struggle to remain silent. Its burning fire image describes pressure within the messenger when proclamation is costly. Read the image through that whole complaint before treating it as an expression of zeal. Jeremiah 11:18 to 12:6; 20:7 to 12. 1
The prophet’s public persecution and inner distress develop together. 13 The praise at 20:13 is followed by a curse upon the day of birth. That actual order leaves pain present after thanksgiving. A congregation may hear here a vocabulary for faithful prayer that tells the truth about anguish. The passage’s intense words should be explained as the prophet’s lament within a threatened vocation, with practical care for people who suffer accompanying its use. Jeremiah 20:1 to 18. 1
Jeremiah 18:1 to 12: An image explained by its own speech
Jeremiah observes a potter reworking a spoiled vessel. The Lord’s explanation addresses the house of Israel and then nations and kingdoms more broadly. Conditional announcements govern the explanatory verses. 14 Turning from evil can alter an announced judgment, while wrongdoing can alter an announced good. The passage’s own account therefore gives response a real place within the image. Chapter 19’s shattered vessel should be explained separately through its accompanying judgment speech. Jeremiah 18:1 to 19:15. 1
The passage includes the people’s refusal to respond. Its accusation is not completed merely by describing the potter’s craft. The hearers’ resolve to follow their own devices appears at the end of the unit. This belongs beside chapter 26’s account of a previous warning heard with repentance. Both texts connect prophetic speech with its reception, helping readers attend to what the audience does after hearing. Jeremiah 18:11 to 12; 26:17 to 19. 1
Jeremiah 22:13 to 17 and 23:1 to 8: Rule measured by care
The palace accusation names unpaid labour, acquisitiveness and oppression. Josiah’s concern for the poor is presented as knowing the Lord. The shepherd metaphor gives leaders responsibility for the flock. 17 The hope for gathering and righteous rule follows accusations against those who scattered and neglected people. Its force comes from the actual failures it answers. A teaching of royal hope should retain justice and judgment alongside the promise of the Branch. Jeremiah 22:13 to 23:8. 1
The community’s wounds include harm suffered by its vulnerable people. 19 Judah’s catastrophe includes people whose hardship was already intensified by powerful neighbours. Chapter 34 later presents a concrete failure of covenant responsibility when released servants are taken back. The release episode recalls duties toward enslaved fellow Israelites. 15 Those details allow leadership and covenant language to be explained through actual conduct. Jeremiah 5:26 to 31; 6:6 to 15; 34:8 to 22; Deuteronomy 15:1 to 18. 1
Jeremiah 29:4 to 14: Hope addressed to deportees
The letter’s audience is identified before its instructions. The people deported with Jehoiachin are told to establish ordinary life and pray for the city. The exiles’ constructive presence belongs beside their patient waiting. 8 The seventy year horizon contests expectations of immediate return. Verse 11 belongs within this communal promise, followed by seeking and finding the Lord. Reading the whole address preserves the relationship between present faithfulness and hoped for restoration. Jeremiah 29:1 to 14. 1
The letter’s first recipients and later readers inhabit different circumstances. 20 The remnant travelling toward Egypt after Jerusalem’s fall receives a different address. Restoration promises and remnant choices remain narratively distinct. 7 The complexity of homecoming includes different displaced communities. 12 These contexts help Christians receive the letter’s hope responsibly while resisting a single prescribed destination or timetable for every modern person away from home. Jeremiah 29:1 to 32; 40:1 to 43:7. 1
Jeremiah 31:31 to 34 and 32:1 to 44: Forgiveness and tangible hope
The covenant promise names Israel and Judah and recalls the relationship broken after the Exodus. Its inward instruction and forgiveness belong together. 9 Knowing the Lord reaches across social ranks within the promised community. Hebrews explicitly quotes this passage in its account of Christ’s ministry, while Luke and Paul receive new covenant language at the Supper and in Spirit empowered ministry. Paul’s discussion concerns ministry and inward renewal. 23 Jeremiah 31:31 to 34; Hebrews 8:1 to 13; Luke 22:14 to 23; 2 Corinthians 3:1 to 18. 1
Restoration includes ordinary work and settled life in Judah. 4 Chapter 32 adds a field purchase during siege, preserved deeds and a prayer to the Creator. The Creator address accompanies coming destruction rather than immediate escape. 10 The concrete act points beyond the crisis toward fields again being bought. It belongs to Jeremiah’s particular sign and announced future, making hope visible through ordinary land and legal documents. Jeremiah 31:23 to 25; 32:1 to 44. 1
Jeremiah 38:7 to 13 and 39:15 to 18: Courage takes practical form
Repeated imprisonment scenes expose failed hearing. 18 Against that setting, Ebed Melech confronts the injustice and obtains help. The Cushite rescuer’s care includes cushioning the ropes with old cloths. 24 The later promise addresses this particular man who trusted the Lord amid danger. His action gives readers a concrete account of courage: a vulnerable person is seen, assistance is sought and bodily injury is considered during rescue. Jeremiah 38:7 to 13; 39:15 to 18. 1
The final sequence extends from remnant decisions through nation oracles to destruction and Jehoiachin’s release. The Greek collection places the nation oracles differently. 16 Within the KJV ending, the released king receives daily bread while remaining in exile. The book’s closing hope is therefore qualified by the continuing condition it actually narrates. This matters when tracing its larger movement from warned judgment toward renewed relationship. Jeremiah 46:1 to 52:34. 1
Sources
Numbered references support the material above. Scripture quotations use the KJV.
- The Holy Bible, King James VersionKJV translators · 1611
Complete Jeremiah 1 to 52 and 19 enumerated companion ranges
View the source - A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old TestamentFrancis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs · 1906
Historical berit entry, including II.2.k and covenant making phrases
View the source - The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Cambridge Bible for Schools and CollegesA. W. Streane
Jeremiah 1:1 to 6 commentary
View the source - Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: JeremiahC. F. Keil
Jeremiah 31:22 to 25 commentary
View the source - Jeremiah: Prophet and BookJ. Gordon McConville · 1991
Tyndale Bulletin 42.1, pages 81 to 83
View the source - A Rhetorical Analysis of Jeremiah 7:1 to 15Michael Avioz · 2006
Tyndale Bulletin 57.2, page 180
View the source - New Exodus and No Exodus in Jeremiah 26 to 45: Promise and Warning to the Exiles in BabylonGary Yates · 2006
Tyndale Bulletin 57.1, pages 11 to 13
View the source - Patience, Presence and Promise: A Study of Prophetic Realism in Jeremiah 29:4 to 7Wilhelm J. Wessels · 2016
Analysis of Jeremiah 29:4 to 7 and contextual discussion of 29:11
View the source - Jeremiah 31:31 to 34: A Prospect of True TransformationM. D. Terblanche · 2021
Acta Theologica Supplementum 32, pages 260 to 262
View the source - Yahweh Is the Creator of Heaven and Earth: The Significance of the Intertextual Link Between Jeremiah 27:5 and 32:17Marius D. Terblanche · 2014
Old Testament Essays 27.2, pages 646 to 647
View the source - Hearing Jeremiah’s Confessions in Light of the Metaphor of the Silent Sheep: Reflections Through African LoreMadipoane Masenya · 2018
Old Testament Essays 31.3, pages 708 to 710
View the source - Going Home? Exiles, Inciles and Refugees in the Book of JeremiahL. Juliana Claassens · 2019
HTS Theological Studies 75.3, page 2
View the source - Is There Shalom, or Not? Jeremiah, a Prophet for South AfricaGeorg Fischer · 2015
Section C, The Suffering of the Prophet Jeremiah
View the source - At the Potter’s Workshop: Jeremiah 18:1 to 12: A Narrative That Reveals More Than Meets the EyeWilhelm J. Wessels · 2020
Analysis of 18:1 to 6 and 18:7 to 10 discussion
View the source - Jeremiah 34:8 to 22: A Call for the Enactment of Distributive Justice?M. D. Terblanche · 2016
Section 2, Intertextual Link with Deuteronomy 15:1 to 18
View the source - The Text Critical and Exegetical Value of the Dead Sea ScrollsJohann Cook · 2016
The Books of Jeremiah, 4QJerd
View the source - Leader Responsibility in the Workplace: Exploring the Shepherd Metaphor in the Book of JeremiahWilhelm J. Wessels · 2014
Developed Jeremiah 23:1 to 6 discussion
View the source - Thematic Correspondences Between the Zedekiah Texts of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 21 to 24 and 37 to 38Wendy L. Widder · 2013
Section C, Narrative Structure of Jeremiah 37 to 38
View the source - The Hidden Wounds of Structural Violence: Exploring an Intersectional Understanding of Violence in Jeremiah 4 to 6Juliana Claassens · 2018
Section C.1, The Slow Violence of Poverty
View the source - YHWH’s Mouthpiece to the Exiles: A Jeremianic Turn of HopeDoniwen Pietersen · 2021
Sections 3.1 to 3.3 and 3.5, Objects of Hope
View the source - The Markan Narrative’s Use of the Old Greek Text of Jeremiah to Explain Israel’s ObduracyLarry Perkins · 2009
Tyndale Bulletin 60.2, pages 225 to 226
View the source - God’s Hidden CompassionLena Sofia Tiemeyer · 2006
Tyndale Bulletin 57.2, pages 202 to 205
View the source - The Spirit in the Present Age: Preliminary Fulfillment of the Predicted New Covenant According to PaulPaul R. Thorsell · 1998
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41.3, pages 400 to 401
View the source - The Portrayal of Africa and Africans in the Book of JeremiahDavid T. Adamo · 2018
Developed Ebed Melech rescue discussion
View the source