---
title: Hebrews 10:16
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-10-16/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-10-16.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hebrews 10:16
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hebrews 10:16

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”

## JW Usage

Hebrews 10:16 quotes Jeremiah 31:33 — "I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds I will write them." The Watchtower reads this as a promise to the 144,000 "spiritual Israel" who are the parties of the new covenant, not to the great crowd. The indwelling-Spirit aspect — laws written on the heart — is assigned to the anointed; the great crowd receives instruction through the organisation rather than directly.

## Protestant Usage

The verse itself is the Jeremiah 31:31-34 citation the entire new- covenant argument rests on, and the verse immediately following (Hebrews 10:17, quoting Jeremiah 31:34) adds: "their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no longer." The covenant's central benefit is forgiveness of sins — and the Jeremiah promise explicitly reaches "from the least of them to the greatest" (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:11). If "the least" is excluded, the "from-the-least-to-the-greatest" language means nothing. Every believer is a party to the new covenant, because every believer needs the forgiveness the covenant secures. Pair with Matthew 26:27-28 ("drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant... for forgiveness of sins") — Jesus did not restrict the cup to a subset, and the covenant's stated purpose is forgiveness of sins, a universal human need.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The New Covenant Includes All Believers](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-anointed-only.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 / Hebrews 8:11 — 'From the Least to the Greatest' [Salvation]