For finding fault with them (i.e. the people), he saith (or, as some take it, finding fault, he saith to them), Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will accomplish upon the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new covenant: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. The passage is quoted from the LXX., with a few verbal differences which do not affect the meaning. In Hebrews 8:9 our A.V. renders the original in Jeremiah "although I was an Husband unto them," instead of "and I regarded them not ( κἀγὼ ἠμέλησα αὐτῶν)." The LXX., followed in the text, gives the more probable meaning. On the whole passage be it observed:
1. "Behold, the days come," like "in that day," is a usual prophetic phrase for denoting the age of the Messiah.
2. The failure of the old covenant is attributed in the first place to the people's not continuing in it, and then, as a consequence, to the LORD's withdrawal of his protection. The evidence of such withdrawal immediately before the prophet's view may be supposed to have been the Babylonian captivity.
3. The distinguishing characteristics of the new covenant are
It is important to perceive that this last characteristic of the new covenant, though coming last in order, is given as the reason for the other two; for this is a first principle of the gospel. The sense of forgiveness through Christ, of acceptance in the Beloved, is ever set forth as the inspiring principle of the obedience of Christians. "We love him, because he first loved us." And hence flow the two results denoted in the prophecy.