Jeremiah 31:31-34

Behold, the days come, &c.— The covenant here spoken of Jeremiah calls a new covenant; Jeremiah 31:31 and what kind of covenant? Not such a one as was made with their fathers; Jeremiah 31:32. This was declarative enough of its nature; yet, to prevent mistakes, he gives as well a positive as a negative description of it. This shall be the covenant,—I will put my law in their inward parts, &c. Jeremiah 31:33 that is to say, "This law shall be spiritual, as the other given to their fathers was comparatively carnal; for the ceremonial law did not so scrutinize the heart, but rested chiefly, or in a great measure in external obedience and observances. But to crown the whole we may observe, that Jeremiah fixed the true nature of the dispensation: In those days they shall say no more, &c. Now, &c. For I will forgive, &c." Jeremiah 31:34. For it was part of the sanction of the Jewish law, that children should bear the iniquity of their fathers. If it be objected, that it was not possible that the Jews, who believed the covenant of the law to be eternal, should look for a new covenant by the Messiah; it may be replied, that they could not well doubt of a second covenant, when a new covenant was plainly promised them in this passage of Jeremiah, different from that made with their fathers on their coming out of Egypt. In that he said a new covenant, he hath made the first old: see Hebrews 8:13. Their ancient Targum, and their פרושׁים Peruschim, or literal expositions, refer the fulfilling of this promise in Jeremiah to the days of the Messiah; and their old traditions to be read still in the Talmud, and in the books of Midrash, are the best comment upon it. Such as these: "The law of Moses shall last no longer than the coming of the Messiah; the week the Son of David comes, the law shall be made anew:" and they declare that most of their festivals, oblations, and distinctions of meats, obliged but for a time, and shall cease under the Messiah. See Bishop Chandler's Defence, p. 272 and Peters on Job, p. 283. Instead of, Although I was unto them; Jeremiah 31:32. Houbigant reads and I disregarded them, or regarded them not. We shall enlarge farther on this subject when we come to the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.