What Does Jeremiah 31:31 Mean?

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Jeremiah 31:31 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

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:

THE KEY

The word translated “new” also means “renew,” so this covenant’s newness carries the force of making a bond fresh again.

THE MEANING

You hear a promise of a bond made new, addressed to the whole household named as Israel and Judah. Both names stand within the same promise, so renewal holds together what division has separated.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that division makes renewal impossible.

THE ROOT

חֲדָשָׁה

chadashah

GROWS FROM

חדש

To be new, renew, or make fresh.

Because chadashah grows from ⁨חדש⁩, “new” carries the active sense of making fresh again. The covenant’s newness can be heard as renewal, a relationship opening into fresh life.

ALSO GROWS

chiddesh: Renew, make fresh.

חִדֵּשׁ

This verb makes explicit the renewing action carried within the word “new.”

chodesh: Month; the new moon.

חֹדֶשׁ

Its shared root links newness with recurring renewal, like the moon’s return.

וְכָרַתִּי

ve-kharati

GROWS FROM

כרת

To cut or sever.

The verb translated “make” is literally “cut”: Hebrew speaks of cutting a covenant. This gives the promise the weight of a binding act with real consequence.

ALSO GROWS

karat berit: Cut a covenant; establish a covenant.

כָּרַת בְּרִית

This Hebrew expression shows the covenant as a bond entered through a decisive act.

hikkaret: Be cut off, be severed.

הִכָּרֵת

The same root can describe separation, making the covenant’s binding force especially vivid.

THE PATTERN

Scripture’s language of renewal makes newness a restored relationship that reaches into the inner life.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steady breath within me.

Psalm 51:10 · SDVThe same ⁨חדש⁩ root behind Jeremiah’s “new” appears as “renew,” bringing the covenant’s language into the inner life.

A new heart I will give you, and a new breath I will set within you. I will take the stone heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26 · SDVRenewal takes the form of a new heart and spirit, reaching the person at the center.

For this is the covenant that I will set in place with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will give my instructions into their minds, and scratch them upon their hearts. And I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people.

Hebrews 8:10 · SDVThe covenant becomes inwardly present, written in the heart and mind.

THE THREAD

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steady breath within me.

Psalm 51:10 · SDV

Jeremiah’s “new” and the psalm’s “renew” share the root ⁨חדש⁩ (chadash). Their shared root lets covenant renewal and inward renewal illuminate each other: newness is an active making-fresh.

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