Jeremiah 31:34 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 31:34
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.
properly · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
man
אִ֣ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
neighbour
רֵעֵ֜הוּre.'E.hu
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
man
וְאִ֤ישׁve.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
brother
אָחִיו֙'a.Chiv
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
saying
לֵאמֹ֔רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Jeremiah 33:8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they h…
Isaiah 54:13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth y…
Hebrews 10:17-18 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Jeremiah 50:20 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah,…
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, com…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 31:27-34
The prophet, having found his sleep sweet, made so by the revelations of divine grace, sets himself to sleep again, in hopes of further discoveries, and is not disappointed; for it is here further promised,
I. That the people of God shall become both numerous and prosperous. Israel and Judah shall be replenished both with men and cattle, as if they were sown with the seed of both, Jer 31:27. They shall increase and multiply like a field sown with corn; and this is the product of God's blessing (Jer 31:23), for whom God blessed, to them he said, Be fruitful. This should be a type of the wonderful increase of the gospel-church. God will build them, and plant them, Jer 31:28. He will watch over…
True, specially of Israel (Isa 54:13); secondarily, true of believers (Joh 6:45; Co1 2:10; Jo1 2:20).
forgive . . . iniquity . . . remember . . . no more-- (Jer 33:8; Jer 50:20; Mic 7:18); applying peculiarly to Israel (Rom 11:27). Secondarily, all believers (Act 10:43).
John Gill on Jeremiah 31:34
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,.... Which is not to be understood of the outward ministry of the word; in heaven indeed there will be no need of it, nor in the New Jerusalem state; but in every period of time before it. In the first times of the Gospel, persons were appointed and qualified by Christ to be pastors and teachers; and in the latter day men shall run to and fro, and increase knowledge; besides, the saints in the present state stand in need of teaching; since they know but in part, and there is room for a growth in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ: nor does this contradict brotherly teaching, or the private instructions of sain…
Jeremiah 31:34
34. 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.
34. Et non docebit amplius vir (id est, quisque) proximum suum, et quisque fratrum suum, dicendo, cognoscite Jehovam; quia omnes cognoscent me a parvo ipsorum, et (sed abundat copula) ad magnum ipsorum, dicit Jehova; quia ignoscam pecattis ipsorum, et iniquitatum ipsorum non recordabor amplius.
But I cannot now proceed farther, for the clock strikes. PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou hast favore…
The Church Fathers
In Jeremiah, we read concerning the future kingdom …, "They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them." The context of this passage clearly shows that the prophet is describing the future kingdom. But how can there possibly be in it a least or greatest, if all are to be equal? The secret is disclosed in the Gospel: "Whoever shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever shall teach and not do shall be least."
The future life achieves the fulfillment of these words. In that life we shall no longer need instruction from one another, since everything will be patently obvious. Sufferings will be at an end, bodies will be incorruptible, souls will be immune to change. Now it is customary with the divine Scripture to mix prophecies together. It connects prophecies about his repeated call to Israel with those about the captivity, and the Lord in the sacred Gospels cites at the one time the sayings about Jerusalem and those about the consummation.
Consider how easy it is for people to obey. For Jeremiah said, "They shall no more teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know the Lord.' For all men will know me from the least of them to the greatest." And Isaiah showed how indestructible the Church would be. "For in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be conspicuous, and the house of the Lord will be on top of the mountains and will be exalted above the hills. And to this mountaintop will come many peoples and many nations."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
Lords Supper — The words which thus describe the great central act of the worship of the Christian Church occur but in a single passage of the New Testament— (1 Corinthians 11:20)
Wisdom · .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — .UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Know
דְּע֖וּde.'U
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
know
יֵדְע֨וּye.de.'U
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
The new covenant. - Jer 31:31. "Behold, days are coming, saith Jahveh, when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant; Jer 31:32. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I laid hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which covenant of mine they broke, though I had married them to myself, saith Jahveh; Jer 31:33. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jahveh: I will put my law within them, and on their heart will I write it; and I will become to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Jer 31:34. And they shall no more teach every man his neighbour an…
The old covenant had to be taught (see Deut 6:4-9), but the heart of the new covenant would be an inner, personal relationship with the Lord. • I will forgive: Each repentant believer would experience God’s forgiveness. • I will never again remember: When sins are forgiven, they can never bring divine judgment (see Heb 10:17). • Jesus’ death inaugurated the new covenant (see Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6; Heb 8; 9:15; 12:22-24).
Rashi on Jeremiah 31:29
unripe grapes A fruit that is not yet ripe, and it sets the teeth on edge.
And the teeth of the children shall be set on edge... The children for the fathers’ iniquity.
