Someone in your church probably told you that Jeremiah 31 is about God replacing Israel with the church. It gets quoted in communion liturgy, referenced in sermons about the “old” covenant being done away with, and wielded like a theological crowbar to pry the New Testament loose from its Jewish roots. But here’s the thing: Jeremiah did not write that. Not even close.
So let’s actually read what he wrote.
“With the House of Israel and the House of Judah”
The text is not subtle. In Jeremiah 31:30-32 (TLV), the Lord says:
“Behold, days are coming... when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”
Read those addressees again. The house of Israel. The house of Judah. This is not metaphorical language for “the church eventually.” Jeremiah is a prophet to a specific people in a specific crisis…the northern kingdom has already fallen to Assyria, the southern kingdom is on the brink of Babylonian exile…and he is speaking God’s promise of covenant renewal directly to them.
The new covenant is made with Israel and Judah. That is the text. That is what it says. Any interpretation that quietly swaps those parties out for someone else has to reckon with why it’s doing that, because the text is not asking for a substitution.
The Problem with the Word “New”
In Hebrew, the word translated “new” here is chadash (חָדָשׁ). And yes, it can mean new in the sense of something never before existing. But it also means renewed, refreshed, restored. The same root gives us the verb used in Lamentations 5:21 — “renew our days as of old.” The same root appears when the moon is “renewed” each month. It’s the same moon. It goes dark and comes back. It’s not a completely new moon… same one!
This matters because Jeremiah’s new covenant is not a covenant with new parties about new content handed down from a completely different theological tradition. It is a covenant with the same people, the same God, and critically, the same Torah… this time written not on stone but on the heart.
Verses 32-33 make this explicit:
“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days... I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart. I will be their God and they will be My people.” (TLV)
God is not scrapping the Torah and handing out a new rulebook. He’s doing something more intimate and more radical than that. He’s internalizing the same covenant he’s always had with Israel so that faithfulness to it becomes a matter of transformed hearts rather than external pressure. The content doesn’t change. The location does.
What Was Wrong with the First One?
Here’s a detail that gets glossed over in most supersessionist readings: Jeremiah doesn’t say the first covenant was bad. He says they broke it.
“For they broke My covenant, though I was a husband to them,” the Lord says in verse 31.
The marital metaphor is doing real work here. A husband who is faithful to a faithless spouse doesn’t cancel the marriage covenant because the covenant was flawed. He seeks restoration.
And the new covenant in Jeremiah is precisely that: a restored, deepened, internalized marriage covenant between God and His people. The problem was never the covenant itself. The problem was human hearts that couldn’t sustain it from the outside in.
This is why the new covenant’s solution is not a new law but a new heart. The Torah goes inside. The knowledge of the Lord goes inside. The forgiveness that enables all of it goes inside.
Verse 33 says:
“No longer will each teach his neighbor or each his brother, saying: ‘Know Adonai,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their iniquity, their sin I will remember no more.” (TLV)
Then What Is Hebrews 8 Doing?
Fair question, because the author of Hebrews does quote Jeremiah 31 extensively and uses the word “obsolete.” That verse has done lots of work in replacement theology that it was never meant to do.
In Hebrews 8:6-10 (TLV), the author writes:
“But now Yeshua has obtained a more excellent ministry, insofar as He is the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises... For finding fault with them, He says, ‘Behold, days are coming, says ADONAI, when I will inaugurate a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah... For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says ADONAI. I will put My Torah into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’”
Notice what the author of Hebrews quotes and what they argue. The new covenant is better because it has a better mediator -- Yeshua -- and better promises. The author isn’t arguing that Israel has been replaced. They’re arguing that the covenant has been inaugurated through Yeshua in a way that exceeds what the Levitical priesthood could accomplish. The “obsolete” thing is the old priestly mediation structure, not the covenant relationship between God and Israel.
And here’s what often gets skipped entirely… the audience. The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish believers in Yeshua (hence the name Hebrews), reassuring them that trusting Yeshua doesn’t mean abandoning their covenant identity. It means that very covenant has reached its deepest fulfillment. They are still the house of Israel. They are still the covenant people. Yeshua is the mediator through whom the new covenant promise of Jeremiah 31 is now being poured out.
Gentile believers get grafted into that reality. Romans 11 is clear on the mechanics. But grafted into is not the same as replaced by.
Verse Mapping Aid
Chadash (חָדָשׁ) — “new”
Transliteration: khah-DAHSH
This Hebrew root appears throughout the Old Testament with a range of meaning that English’s single word “new” doesn’t fully communicate. In its verb form, chidesh, it means to renew or restore.
The related noun chodesh refers to the monthly renewal of the moon -- Rosh Chodesh… the new moon. When Psalm 51:10 asks God to “create in me a clean heart,” the verb for “create” is bara, the same word used in Genesis 1. But the following line asks God to “renew a steadfast spirit within me,” and there the word is chadesh -- renew, not create from nothing. The spirit already exists. It needs renewal, not replacement.
This distinction matters in Jeremiah 31 because the covenant God promises to renew is not a new religion. It’s a renewed, deepened, internalized version of the covenant relationship He has always had with Israel… now written on the heart through the mediating work of Yeshua, who Hebrews calls the guarantor of that better covenant.
My Final Thoughts
Replacement theology feels like a theological shortcut. It takes Jeremiah’s most extravagant promise of covenant renewal for Israel and quietly reassigns it to someone else, then acts like it’s just reading the text. It isn’t.
The new covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Gentile believers in Yeshua are invited into that covenant - gloriously, lavishly, not as an afterthought - but through the root, not as a replacement for it.
The Torah written on the heart belongs to the same story Sinai belongs to. The forgiveness that seals it flows from the same God who called Abraham, led the Exodus, and wept through the prophets over a faithless people He refused to abandon.
That’s not a story of replacement. That’s a love story. And Jeremiah knew it.
Bible Study Questions
In Jeremiah 31:30, God explicitly names the parties with whom the new covenant is made. Who are they, and why do you think that specificity matters?
What does God cite as the failure of the first covenant in verse 31? What does it tell you about God’s character that He proposes renewal rather than abandonment?
In verses 32-33, the Torah moves from stone to heart. What does that shift suggest about the nature of the new covenant relationship the Lord is promising?
Reflection Questions
Have you previously understood the new covenant as replacing Israel’s covenant with the church? Where did that reading come from in your own faith formation?
How does understanding Gentile believers as “grafted in” rather than “substituted in” change how you think about your own relationship to the covenant promises of Scripture?
The Bible renders the key word as “new” but the Hebrew chadash also means renewed. Does that distinction shift anything in how you read this passage personally?
Action Challenges
Read Romans 11:17-24 this week alongside Jeremiah 31:30-33. Write down in your own words what Paul says about the relationship between Gentile believers and the covenant people of Israel.
The next time you take communion, sit with the phrase “the new covenant in my blood.” Consider: new covenant with whom? Mediated by whom? For whose restoration and renewal? Let that question deepen your participation rather than settle into a rote answer.
Find one other place in the Old Testament where the root chadash appears and note whether it suggests newness from nothing or renewal of something existing. You can use a concordance or an app to do this. Share what you find in the comments below.
If this study stirred something in you, share it with a friend who has questions about the relationship between the Old and New Testaments -- because this passage is at the center of that conversation and most people have never actually read it this closely.
And if it left you wanting to go slower and deeper into the Word, I’ve got you! Paid subscribers get access to live Bible studies, extended studies, devotionals, theological teaching, spiritual formation practices, and a community of women who want depth without pressure or performance. If you’re ready to step further into the Word, you’re welcome inside. 👉🏻 Join The Vault. If a paid subscription isn’t feasible right now but this space has blessed you, you can leave a one-time tip here. Every gift helps sustain this work. 🤍
About the Author
Diane Ferreira is a Jewish believer in Yeshua, a published author, speaker, seminary student, wife, and proud mom. She is the founder of She’s So Scripture and She Opens Her Bible. She is the author of several books, including The Proverbs 31-ish Woman, which debuted as Amazon’s #1 New Release in Religious Humor, as well as Holy, Hormonal and Holding On.
She is currently pursuing her graduate degree in Jewish Studies in seminary, with her favorite topics being the early church and Biblical Hebrew. Diane writes and teaches from a unique perspective, bridging her Jewish heritage with vibrant faith in the Messiah to bring clarity, depth, and devotion to everyday believers.
When she’s not writing, studying, or teaching, you’ll find her curled up with a good book, crocheting something cozy, or playing her favorite video games.
Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.
Thank you for this! It is excellent and needed at this time with so many in the church dangerously flirting with replacement theology.
I LOVE that I'm seeing this message everywhere I look lately! And I especially love that we all approach it just a little bit differently with a slightly different focus.
We need to spread this as far and wide as we possibly can!