---
title: Jeremiah 31:31
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-31-31/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-31-31.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Jeremiah 31:31
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Jeremiah 31:31

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

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

## JW Usage

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the new covenant announced in Jeremiah 31:31 is between Jehovah and "spiritual Israel" — the 144,000 anointed class — with Jesus as its mediator. The millions of Witnesses in the "great crowd" are not parties to this covenant. The Watchtower parallels them with "alien residents" under the old covenant who received blessings without full membership. The 2010 publication God's Word For Us Through Jeremiah (p. 173) reaffirms: "The new covenant is between Jehovah God and spiritual Israel, with Jesus as its Mediator." This restriction underpins the denial of the Memorial emblems to ordinary Witnesses, since the cup represents the new covenant blood (Luke 22:20). JWs also read Jeremiah 31:34's "they will all know me" as a purely future promise for the anointed remnant, deferring the verse when it would dismantle the organisational teaching channel.

## Protestant Usage

Protestants read Jeremiah 31:31 as the foundational prophecy of a covenant that includes the whole people of God. The covenant is made with "the house of Israel and the house of Judah" — the entire nation, not an elite subset. The subsequent verses (vv. 33-34) describe its comprehensive scope: God will write his law on every heart, they will all know him "from the least to the greatest," and he will forgive their sins. The phrase "from the least to the greatest" explicitly rules out a two-tier system. Hebrews 8:8-13 quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 in full and applies it to the present church age, declaring the old covenant "obsolete" (Hebrews 8:13). The Reformed inaugurated-eschatology framework recognises that the new covenant has been inaugurated in Christ but awaits its consummation at his return. The "already" dimension — the Spirit indwelling every believer (Romans 8:9), direct priestly access (Hebrews 10:19), the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9) — is sufficient to dismantle any claim that one organisation holds a monopoly on mediating God's truth. The new covenant's stated purpose is forgiveness of sins; excluding anyone from the covenant excludes them from the forgiveness it provides.

## 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]
- [Already, But Not Yet — The New Covenant's Direction of Travel](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/inaugurated-eschatology-already-not-yet.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 and 1 Corinthians 13:12 read together [Authority]
- [Ministers of a New Covenant](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-2cor3-direct-mediation.md) — 2 Corinthians 3:6, 18 — Paul's 'us' has no asterisk [Salvation]
- [A Heart of Flesh — God Does the Changing, Not the Watchtower](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ezekiel36-heart-of-flesh.md) — Ezekiel 36:26-27 [Salvation]