The New Covenant

(Hebrews 8:6–13)

26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.

27 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to demolish, destroy, and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.

29 “In those days, it will no longer be said:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’

30 Instead, each will die for his own iniquity. If anyone eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.

31 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.

32 It will not be like the covenant

I made with their fathers

when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of the land of Egypt—

a covenant they broke,

though I was a husband to them,[fn]”

declares the LORD.

33 “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the LORD.

I will put My law in their minds

and inscribe it on their hearts.

And I will be their God,

and they will be My people.

34 No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother,

saying, ‘Know the LORD,’

because they will all know Me,

from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.

For I will forgive their iniquities

and will remember their sins no more.”[fn]

35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of Hosts is His name:

36 “Only if this fixed order departed from My presence,

declares the LORD,

would Israel’s descendants ever cease

to be a nation before Me.”

37 This is what the LORD says:

“Only if the heavens above could be measured

and the foundations of the earth below searched out

would I reject all of Israel’s descendants

because of all they have done,”

declares the LORD.

38 “The days are coming,”[fn] declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for Me, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be uprooted or demolished.”