Question 1

According to 31:34, why will people no longer need to urge one another to know the LORD?

Accepted Answer

In the new covenant, no one will need to press a fellow Israelite or relative to know the LORD, since all of God’s people, from the lowliest to the most important, will know Him (31:34). Earlier in the book God had charged His people with not knowing Him at all (4:22). Now God promises that knowing Him will be true of all His covenant people, flowing from His writing of the law on their hearts (31:33). Jesus pointed to the prophets’ promise that all God’s people would receive teaching from God Himself and said that all who have heard and learned from the Father come to Him (John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13), and John tells believers that all of them know the truth through the anointing they have received (1 John 2:20).

Question 2

In 31:34, why will exhortations to know the LORD no longer be necessary among His new covenant people?

Accepted Answer

The second promise is universal personal knowledge of God: no longer will one urge another to know the LORD, for all will know Him, from the least to the greatest (31:34). This stands in contrast to God’s earlier indictment of a people who did not know God (4:22), and it flows from the inward writing of the law in 31:33. Jesus grounds coming to Him in being taught by the Father, citing the prophetic promise (John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13), and John assures believers that all of them know the truth by the anointing of the Holy One (1 John 2:20).

Question 3

How does the LORD respond to Ephraim’s prayer of repentance in 31:20?

Accepted Answer

God calls Ephraim a dear son and a child He delights in. Though He has often had to speak against him, He has not forgotten him; His heart longs for him and He will surely show him mercy (31:20). The response matches the father in Jesus’ parable who saw his son while still far off, felt compassion, and ran to embrace him (Luke 15:20), and Hosea’s picture of God’s heart turning within Him toward Ephraim (Hosea 11:8). The LORD’s compassion is like a father’s tenderness toward his children (Psalm 103:13). God then calls His wandering people to mark the road and come home to their towns, and promises that Judah’s cities will again be blessed and settled (31:21-24).

Question 4

What is the LORD’s answer to Ephraim’s confession in 31:20?

Accepted Answer

The divine reply to Ephraim’s confession is pure fatherly mercy: Ephraim is a dear son and a child who delights Him; though God has often spoken against him, He keeps him in mind, His heart longs for him, and He will surely have compassion on him (31:20). Covenant discipline never cancels covenant sonship. The scene anticipates the father of the prodigal running to his returning son (Luke 15:20), echoes Hosea’s portrait of God’s stirred compassion for Ephraim (Hosea 11:8), and reflects the LORD’s fatherly compassion toward His reverent children (Psalm 103:13). The oracle then summons wandering Israel to mark the road home and promises renewed blessing and settled life for Judah’s cities (31:21-24).

Question 5

What will watchmen in Ephraim’s hill country call out in 31:6?

Accepted Answer

God promises that Virgin Israel will be built up again, will once more celebrate with tambourines and dancing, and will see vineyards growing again on Samaria’s slopes, with farmers enjoying what they planted (31:4-5). Then watchmen in Ephraim’s hill country will summon the people to travel up to Zion and worship the LORD (31:6). This is striking because Samaria and Ephraim belonged to the northern kingdom, whose first king Jeroboam set up golden calves so that his people would stop traveling to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:27-28). The promise pictures the divided people united again in worship, as Ezekiel also foretold (Ezekiel 37:22), with the gladness of pilgrims heading to worship at God’s house (Psalm 122:1).

Question 6

In the restoration scene of 31:4-6, what call do the watchmen of Ephraim raise?

Accepted Answer

The restoration of 31:4-6 reverses the northern schism. Virgin Israel will be rebuilt, its tambourines and dancing renewed, its vineyards replanted on Samaria’s hills (31:4-5), and the watchmen of Ephraim, the heartland of the former northern kingdom, will summon the people to Zion for worship (31:6). Jeroboam had erected the golden calves precisely to keep the northern tribes from traveling to Jerusalem to sacrifice (1 Kings 12:27-28). The promise envisions one reunited people worshiping at the place God chose (Ezekiel 37:22; Psalm 122:1).

Question 7

In 31:3, what reason does the LORD give for having drawn Israel to Himself?

Accepted Answer

God showed favor in the desert to those who escaped the sword (31:2), and long ago the LORD showed Himself to His people and declared that His love for them is everlasting, and that because of this love He has drawn them to Himself with loving devotion (31:3). The order matters: God’s love comes first, and His drawing flows out of it. God did not choose Israel because they were a large nation but because He loved them (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). In related teaching, Jesus says that a person comes to Him only when the Father draws him (John 6:44), and John writes that believers love because God loved them first (1 John 4:19).

Question 8

According to 31:3, what is the ground of the LORD’s drawing of Israel?

Accepted Answer

Recalling His favor to the survivors in the wilderness (31:2), the LORD grounds His drawing of Israel in His own everlasting love: because He has loved them with a love that has no end, He has drawn them with loving devotion (31:3). The initiative and the cause lie wholly in God. Israel’s election rested not on its numbers but on the LORD’s free love and His oath to the fathers (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). In related teaching, Jesus says that none come to Him apart from the Father’s drawing (John 6:44), and the believer’s love is always the answer to God’s prior love (1 John 4:19).

Question 9

What is the point of the LORD’s comparison with the sun, moon, and stars in 31:35-36?

Accepted Answer

God identifies Himself as the one who provides the sun to light the day, sets the moon and the stars in place to light the night, and churns the sea until its waves roar (31:35). Only if that fixed order were to vanish from His presence would Israel’s descendants stop being a nation before Him (31:36). Likewise, only if someone could measure the heavens and search out the earth’s foundations would He cast off Israel’s offspring for what they have done (31:37). Since neither can happen, the promise is certain: God will not cast off His people. Jeremiah records the same kind of pledge for David’s line and the Levites (33:20-21, 25-26), and Paul, asking whether God has rejected His people, answers that He has not cast away the people He foreknew (Romans 11:1-2). The chapter ends with the promise that the city will be built again for the LORD across its full extent, that even the defiled valley of corpses and ashes will be set apart as His, and that it will never be torn down again (31:38-40).

Question 10

What does the LORD affirm by appealing to the ordered heavens in 31:35-37?

Accepted Answer

The LORD, Creator and sustainer of sun, moon, stars, and sea (31:35), binds His commitment to Israel’s descendants to the permanence of the created order: only if that order failed before Him would they stop existing as His nation (31:36), and only if someone could measure heaven and search out earth’s foundations would He reject them for everything they have done (31:37). Covenant faithfulness here outlasts covenant failure. Jeremiah 33 applies the same reasoning to the Davidic and Levitical promises (33:20-21, 25-26), and Paul affirms that God has not cast away the people He foreknew (Romans 11:1-2). The chapter closes with Jerusalem rebuilt for the LORD to its full extent, even its defiled valley of corpses and ashes consecrated to Him, never again to be torn down (31:38-40).

Question 11

True or False: After Rachel’s weeping, the LORD tells her that her sorrow is endless because her children will never come back.

Accepted Answer

This is false. The LORD answers Rachel’s weeping by telling her to hold back her cries and dry her tears, because her labor will be rewarded and her children will come back from the enemy’s land (31:16). He adds that her future holds hope, and that they will be brought home to their own country (31:17). Grief is real in this passage, but it is not the last word. God promises to wipe away tears (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4), and a tearful sowing gives way to a joyful harvest (Psalm 126:5).

Question 12

True or False: The LORD’s reply to Rachel’s lament in 31:16-17 confirms that her grief has no end because her children are lost for good.

Accepted Answer

This is false. The divine reply forbids continued weeping, because Rachel’s labor will be rewarded and her children will come back from enemy territory (31:16); her future holds hope, and her children are to be brought home to their own country (31:17). The lament of 31:15 is real but provisional, set within God’s promise of restoration. Scripture’s final word over the grief of God’s people is that He Himself wipes away their tears (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4), and sowing in tears ends in reaping with joy (Psalm 126:5).

Question 13

In the new covenant of 31:33, where does the LORD say He will put His law?

Accepted Answer

At the center of the new covenant is God’s promise to place His law inside His people, in mind and heart, and with it He restates the covenant bond, that He will be God to them and they will belong to Him (31:33). The people had broken the old covenant (31:32), but here God Himself does the inward work. Ezekiel describes the same promise as God giving a fresh heart and putting His Spirit within His people so that they walk in His ways (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Paul says believers are a letter written by the Spirit of God on human hearts rather than on stone tablets (2 Corinthians 3:3), and Hebrews applies this promise to those who belong to Christ (Hebrews 10:16). Christians call this inward change regeneration, meaning God’s gift of new spiritual life.

Question 14

According to 31:33, what is the location of God’s law under the new covenant?

Accepted Answer

The first promise of the new covenant is internal: God will place His law within them, written on mind and heart, establishing the covenant relationship on a transformed nature (31:33). Where the people broke the old covenant (31:32), God now undertakes the inward work Himself. This is sovereign regeneration, the same promise Ezekiel frames as a heart made new and the indwelling Spirit who causes obedience (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Paul sees it fulfilled in believers as a letter written by the Spirit on hearts rather than on stone tablets (2 Corinthians 3:3), and Hebrews applies it to the people of Christ (Hebrews 10:16).

Question 15

In 31:31-32, how does the LORD set the promised new covenant beside the covenant made after He brought Israel out of Egypt?

Accepted Answer

God announces that a time is coming when He will establish a new covenant, a binding agreement between God and His people, for both Israel and Judah (31:31). Unlike the covenant He made with their ancestors when He personally guided them out of Egypt, which they violated despite His faithfulness as their husband, this covenant will be different (31:32). The failure of the old covenant lay in the people, not in God; Hebrews says God’s complaint was with them (Hebrews 8:8-9). Jesus, at the Last Supper, called the cup the new covenant sealed by His blood (Luke 22:20), and Hebrews quotes this very passage to show that Jesus mediates a better covenant that rests on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). The new covenant is fulfilled in Christ.

Question 16

How does 31:31-32 contrast the promised new covenant to the exodus covenant?

Accepted Answer

The LORD promises a new covenant embracing both Israel and Judah (31:31), explicitly unlike the Sinai covenant made when He led the fathers out of Egypt, which they violated though He had been a faithful husband to them (31:32). The defect lay in the covenant partners, not in the covenant Lord, as Hebrews observes when quoting the passage (Hebrews 8:8-9). Christ inaugurated this covenant in His blood at the Supper (Luke 22:20), and Hebrews identifies Him as the mediator of a better covenant enacted on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). The new covenant is fulfilled in Christ.

Question 17

To which event does Matthew apply the words about Rachel weeping in Ramah (31:15)?

Accepted Answer

In 31:15 a cry of grief rises from Ramah: Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin (Genesis 35:24), mourns her lost children and will not be consoled because they are gone. In Jeremiah’s setting the image pictures Israel’s grief over its lost children, and the next verses speak of those children being in enemy territory (31:16). Matthew says this word was fulfilled when Herod, furious at being tricked by the wise men, had every boy in and around Bethlehem aged two and younger put to death (Matthew 2:16-18). Rachel herself had been buried on the road to Bethlehem (Genesis 35:19). In Jeremiah the lament does not stand alone: the following verses promise that the weeping will end (31:16-17).

Question 18

Which event does Matthew present as the fulfillment of Rachel’s lament in Ramah (31:15)?

Accepted Answer

Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin (Genesis 35:24), is pictured lamenting in Ramah over her lost children and refusing consolation (31:15), an image of Israel bereaved of children who, as the next verse shows, are in enemy territory (31:16). Matthew declares this word fulfilled in Herod’s slaughter of Bethlehem’s boys aged two and younger after he was tricked by the wise men (Matthew 2:16-18). Rachel had been buried on the road to Bethlehem (Genesis 35:19). Jeremiah’s own context immediately sets the lament within a promise of return and hope (31:16-17).

Question 19

Who does the LORD say will be included among those He gathers from the north in 31:8?

Accepted Answer

God calls for joyful singing over Jacob and for a prayer that He would rescue the surviving remnant of His people (31:7). He answers by promising to lead them home from the north and from the ends of the earth, and the company He gathers includes people who are blind or lame, women who are pregnant, and women about to give birth, a great assembly coming home (31:8). They come weeping and praying, and He leads them beside streams on a smooth path so they do not trip, because He is a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is His firstborn (31:9). The weak are not left behind, because the return depends on God’s strength, not theirs. Micah gives the same picture of God gathering the lame and making them a remnant (Micah 4:6-7), Isaiah shows Him gently leading the nursing ewes (Isaiah 40:11), and at the exodus God called Israel His firstborn son (Exodus 4:22).

Question 20

In 31:8, how does the LORD describe the company He brings home from the north?

Accepted Answer

The remnant God gathers from the north and the ends of the earth is not a company of the strong: it includes blind and lame people, expectant mothers and those about to give birth, a great assembly that comes with weeping and supplication (31:7-9). God Himself leads them by streams on a level road, and the reason given is relational: He is a Father to Israel, with Ephraim as His firstborn (31:9). The restoration depends wholly on the Shepherd’s strength, as in Micah’s promise to make the lame a remnant (Micah 4:6-7) and Isaiah’s picture of the Shepherd gently leading the nursing ewes (Isaiah 40:11), and it rests on the sonship God declared at the exodus (Exodus 4:22).

Question 21

In Ephraim’s prayer in 31:18, what does he ask the LORD to do?

Accepted Answer

God says He has heard Ephraim groaning. Ephraim admits that God disciplined him hard, like a calf that had never been trained, and then prays that God would restore him so that he can return, because the LORD is his God (31:18). He goes on to say that after he turned back he repented, and after he was taught he struck his thigh in grief, ashamed and humbled as he bore the reproach of his younger days (31:19). In Ephraim’s own words, his return depends on God’s restoring work: he does not offer to fix himself first but asks God to act so that he can come back. Lamentations makes the same plea near its close (Lamentations 5:21), and the New Testament speaks of repentance as something God grants (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25).

Question 22

What petition does Ephraim make in the prayer God overhears in 31:18?

Accepted Answer

Ephraim’s prayer, overheard by God, acknowledges that God disciplined him hard, like a young animal never trained, and asks God to restore him so that he may return, since the LORD is his God (31:18). Ephraim’s own petition makes his turning depend on God’s restoring grace, and he goes on to say that after turning back he repented, and after being instructed he struck his thigh, ashamed under the reproach of his younger years (31:19). The same petition appears near the close of Lamentations (Lamentations 5:21), and the New Testament describes repentance as God’s gift (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25).

Question 23

True or False: In 31:10 the LORD who drove Israel into exile is also the One who promises to regather them and watch over them like a shepherd.

Accepted Answer

This is true. God summons even far-off nations to hear His word: the same LORD who sent Israel into exile will bring them together again and tend them the way a shepherd tends sheep (31:10). He has ransomed and redeemed Jacob, buying him back from a power too strong for him (31:11), and the returning people will sing out on Zion’s heights, rejoice over grain, wine, oil, and flocks, and flourish like a watered garden (31:12). God will replace their grief with gladness and console them in place of sorrow (31:13). The exile was never outside God’s control: the hand that scattered is the hand that gathers. Ezekiel describes God searching out His scattered sheep (Ezekiel 34:12), Isaiah pictures the redeemed returning to Zion with singing (Isaiah 35:10), and a psalm praises God for turning mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11).

Question 24

True or False: According to 31:10, the God who dispersed Israel is the same God who will regather and shepherd them.

Accepted Answer

This is true. The oracle addressed to the distant coastlands makes God the subject of both exile and return: the One who dispersed Israel will regather and shepherd them (31:10), having ransomed and redeemed Jacob from a hand too strong for him (31:11). The result is abundance and joy on Zion’s heights and sorrow exchanged for comfort (31:12-13). Exile and restoration alike lie under God’s sovereign hand. Ezekiel’s Shepherd seeks out His scattered sheep (Ezekiel 34:12), the redeemed return to Zion with singing (Isaiah 35:10), and mourning is turned into dancing (Psalm 30:11).

Question 25

True or False: Hebrews quotes God’s promise in 31:34 to no longer call His people’s sins to mind and concludes that, once sins are forgiven, sacrifices for sin are no longer required.

Accepted Answer

This is true. The new covenant promise ends with its foundation: God will forgive His people’s wrongdoing and no longer call their sins to mind (31:34). Hebrews quotes this promise twice. In chapter 8 it shows that Christ mediates the new and better covenant (Hebrews 8:12), and in chapter 10 it adds that where these sins have been forgiven, there is no more need to offer a sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:17-18). Jesus said His covenant blood was shed so that many would be forgiven (Matthew 26:28). God not remembering sins does not mean He has a lapse of memory; it means He will never again hold them against His people, because Christ’s one sacrifice has fully dealt with them.

Question 26

True or False: Hebrews draws from the forgiveness promise of 31:34 the conclusion that, where sins are forgiven, further sacrifice for sin is unnecessary.

Accepted Answer

This is true. Forgiveness is the ground on which the whole new covenant rests: God will pardon iniquity and remember sin no more (31:34). Hebrews cites the promise in its exposition of Christ’s better covenant (Hebrews 8:12) and again after His once-for-all offering, concluding that where these sins are forgiven no further sacrifice for sin remains needed (Hebrews 10:17-18). Christ shed His covenant blood so that many would be forgiven (Matthew 26:28). God’s not remembering is not forgetfulness but a judicial decision never again to charge those sins to His people, since Christ’s sacrifice has fully satisfied for them.

Question 27

What does the LORD say will replace the proverb about sour grapes in 31:29-30?

Accepted Answer

After promising to rebuild and replant His people, watching over them for good as surely as He once watched over them for ruin (31:27-28), God takes up a saying that when fathers ate sour grapes, their children’s teeth were set on edge, meaning that children suffer for what their parents did (31:29). God says a day is coming when no one will repeat this saying; instead each person will answer for his own wrongdoing, and whoever eats sour grapes will feel it in his own teeth (31:30). Ezekiel addresses the same proverb and gives the same answer, that God holds the sinner himself accountable (Ezekiel 18:2-4, 20), echoing the law’s rule that fathers and children must not be executed for one another’s sins (Deuteronomy 24:16).

Question 28

What principle does the LORD set in place of the sour grapes proverb in 31:29-30?

Accepted Answer

Having pledged to watch over His people to rebuild and replant them as surely as He once kept watch to tear them down (31:27-28), God retires the proverb of 31:29, which held that children suffer for what their fathers did: in the coming days each person will answer for his own guilt, and the one who eats sour grapes will feel it in his own teeth (31:30). Ezekiel confronts the same proverb with the same principle of personal accountability before God (Ezekiel 18:2-4, 20), which reflects the law’s rule for human courts that no one is executed for another’s sin (Deuteronomy 24:16).

Jeremiah 31 Study Notes: Everlasting Love and the New Covenant

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