Jeremiah 31
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Partially torn page from Jeremiah (31:34 - 32:14) of the Aleppo Codex from a fascimile edition.
Book	Book of Jeremiah
Hebrew Bible part	Nevi'im
Order in the Hebrew part	6
Category	Latter Prophets
Christian Bible part	Old Testament
Order in the Christian part	24

Jeremiah 31 is the thirty-first chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It is numbered as Jeremiah 38 in the Septuagint. The book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter is notable for the passage about the “New Covenant” (31:31-34) of God with His restored people^[1][2] and the quoting of 31:15 in the “Massacre of the Innocents" narrative (Gospel of Matthew 2:16-18).^[3] The Jerusalem Bible refers to chapters 30 and 31 as "the Book of Consolation",^[4] and Lutheran theologian Ernst Hengstenberg calls these two chapters "the triumphal hymn of Israel’s salvation".^[5]

The original text of Jeremiah 31 is written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 40 verses.

Some of the oldest extant manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century; since 1947 only verses 34-38 are extant), Codex Leningradensis (1008).^[6] Some fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, i.e., 4QJer^c (4Q72; 1st century BC)^[7], with extant verses 1-14, 19-26 (similar to Masoretic Text).^[8][9][10]

Ancient manuscripts in Greek containing this chapter are mainly of the Septuagint version, including Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G))}$^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G))}$^S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G))}$^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G))}$^Q; 6th century).^[11]

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex, and those in the missing parts of the codex (since 1947) are from Kimhi's notes,^[12] marked with an asterisk (*).^[13] Jeremiah 31 is a part of the Eleventh prophecy (Jeremiah 30-31) in the Consolations (Jeremiah 30-33) section. {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.

{S*} 31:1-5 {P*} 31:6-8 {P*} 31:9-13 {P*} 31:14 {S*} 31:15-19^[14] {S*} 31:20-21 {P*} 31:22-25 {S*} 31:26-29 {S*} 31:30-33 {S*} 31:34-35 {S} 31:36 {S} 31:37-39 {P}

New King James Version:

“At the same time,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”^[15]

Streane notes that this verse is "virtually a repetition of Jeremiah 30:22" and therefore argues that it should be treated as part of chapter 30.^[16]

New King James Version:

They shall come with weeping,

And with supplications I will lead them.

I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters,

In a straight way in which they shall not stumble;

For I am a Father to Israel,

And Ephraim is My firstborn.^[17]

Streane suggests that the weeping described here (from the Hebrew version) reflects tears of contrition marking the return from exile, but notes that the Septuagint's text has a different tone:

“They went forth with weeping, but with consolation will I bring them back”.^[16]

Thus says the Lord:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,

Lamentation and bitter weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children,

Refusing to be comforted for her children,

Because they are no more.”^[18]

“Rachel”, Jacob’s wife and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, is described lamenting her descendants (both northern and southern tribes) carried away to exile for their sins^[19] and would be extinct (“no more”; cf. Genesis 42:36), also figuratively grieved when later the children were “brutally murdered” in the area of Bethlehem where she died (Genesis 35:16–20; 48:7).^[20] Rachel’s weeping could be heard in "Ramah", “where the Judean exiles were gathered before the deportation to Babylon” (Jeremiah 40:1).^[21]

“How long will you gad about,

O you backsliding daughter?

For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—

A woman shall encompass a man.”^[22]

This phrase is said to be the basis of the part of a Jewish wedding, where the bride traditionally walks around the groom three or seven times when she arrives at the Chuppah.^[23]

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:^[24]

• "New covenant": is translated from Hebrew: ברית חדשה, brit chadashah; the exact phrase is only found here in the entire Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, but Huey notes that "the ideas associated with it are frequently expressed."^[25] Kaiser counts "sixteen or seventeen major passages on the new covenant."^[26] Thompson holds that this statement can be traced back to the prophet Jeremiah, despite arguments pointing the origin to latter editors, because, in his observation, Jeremiah "was in the verge of stating the doctrine on a number of occasions."^[27]

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.^[28]

• "Put my law in their inward parts": Instead of putting the law on stone tablets (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13), God will put his law in "inward parts" (qereb; "inmost being" or "minds") and "hearts" (see Jeremiah 17:1–2; Romans 7:4–6; 2 Corinthians 3:3, 6–16).^[29]

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.^[30]

• "For they shall all know me": "The universal knowledge of God" will be a result of the "new covenant".^[31]

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.”^[32]

• "Tower of Hananeel": was located at the northeast corner of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3:1; Nehemiah 12:39; Zechariah 14:10).^[33] As “Hananeel” (or “Hananel”) means “God's grace”, Schroeder notes that the Tower of Hananeel “metaphorically designates” the apostles and first believers who were “strengthened like a tower by the grace of the Holy Spirit descending on them on the Day of Pentecost with a visible sign” (Acts 2:3).^[34]
• "Gate of the corner" (Corner Gate): was to the northwest of Jerusalem (2 Kings 14:13; Zechariah 14:10), a part of expansion to the northwest side of the city under Uzziah and Hezekiah.^[33]

The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text (Hebrew), and Vulgate (Latin), in some places differs from that in the Septuagint (LXX, the Greek Bible used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and others) according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.^[35]

The order of CATSS based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta (1935) differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition (1957) in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs edition (=CATSS).^[35]

• Finfer, Pesah (1906). Masoret HaTorah VehaNevi'im. Vilna, (Hebrew). Online text: DjVu at Commons, (PDF)
• Huey, F. B. (1993). The New American Commentary - Jeremiah, Lamentations: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, NIV Text. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 9780805401165.
• Ofer, Yosef (1992). "The Aleppo Codex and the Bible of R. Shalom Shachna Yellin" in Rabbi Mordechai Breuer Festschrift: Collected Papers in Jewish Studies, ed. M. Bar-Asher, 1:295-353. Jerusalem (in Hebrew). Online text (PDF)
• Thompson, J. A. (1980). A Book of Jeremiah. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (illustrated, revised ed.). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 9780802825308.
• Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019.

• Jeremiah 31 Hebrew with Parallel English

• Jeremiah 31 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate