Jer. 31:31: Text and notes in copyable format below.
________________________
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yãhweh,
“when I will covenant with the house of Israel,
and with the house of Judah
the covenant, anew¹,
32 ¹not according² the covenant
when
I covenanted with their fathers—in the
day I firmly took them by the hand to make them come out of the land of
Egypt—when
they broke my covenant, although I was married to them,” declares
Yãhweh. (MISB,
Jer. 31:31-32).
(Link to MISB:
http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html)
31.1 While the context indicates renewed as the meaning of the text, it would be best not to base arguments on the new/renew ambiguity of the adjective. The argument should be stated that there are many things that are “new” which are merely replacement copies of the old, yet we still call them “new”! The “new moon” is really just a new instance of the old moon. There is actually nothing tellingly different about it. And the “new” covenant is just a new cutting of the old one, only with Messiah’s blood this time.
32.1 The covenant renewal will include divine social engineering on a national scale by writing the Torah on the hearts of His people (cf. Deut. 30:6-8), so that the curse will never again be triggered on a national scale for the house of Judah or the house of Israel. The curses came into play the first time because Yahweh was not yet ready to redemptively intervene on a national scale in the hearts of the whole people, an action that would have closed the door of repentance for other people that Yahweh wanted to give time to repent.
32.2 These words are difficult for many because the following clause was mistranslated in most English texts, and elsewhere misunderstood. The phrase must be completed this way, “not according to the covenant (...) when they broke my covenant”. It means that the new covenant is only unlike the old with respect to application of the part of the covenant concerning what happens “when they break my covenant”, and the reason why is made clear in vs. 33—none of the redeemed will break the renewed covenant.