470 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSand I I: I8-20 admonishing them also to keep Yahweh's words in their hearts as
well as in more conspicuous places. But now Yahweh will inscribe the law on
the human heart, which is thought by some to be the genuinely new element in
the new covenant (Hyatt; B. W. Anderson I964: 234-35; von Rad I965: 213-I4;
Potter I 983: 353). Von Rad says that in the old covenant God spoke and the
people listened, but now this will be dropped; God will put the law straight
into Israel's heart, and obedience will no longer be a problem. Very well, but
can Christians claim that this has happened with the dawn of the Kingdom?
Jewish interpretation, too, interprets the promise literally, but it looks forward
to fulfillment in the Messianic Age, which has not yet come. Because the verb
lmd (Piel: "teach, instruct") occurs here, it is assumed by many that "teach-
ing" is at issue and that with the new covenant in place there will no longer
be a need for instruction. Some say God alone will be teacher of the people
(Isa 54: 13; Matt 23:8-10; cf. Derrett I 981: 377). Potter thinks the new covenant
will no longer be mediated by now-discredited scribes and elitists (cf. 2:8; 8:8)
but will be apprehended by all. But this is largely a holdover from Duhm's idea
that the passage promoted a scribal ideal: "dass all /uden Schriftgelehrte sind
("that all Jews shall be scribes"). Formal teaching is not at issue. "Know Yah-
weh!" is instruction from a prophet, which is to say that Jeremiah envisions a
day when people the likes of himself will be out of a job. Volz recalls Moses'
hearing about unauthorized prophesying in the wilderness camp and exclaim-
ing to Joshua, "Would that all Yahweh's people were prophets!" (Num I I :29).
But in this future day, things will be even grander, for not only will a leveling
have occurred, but no one will need to admonish another to "Know Yahweh!"
for everyone will know him. Here we must also allow for some hyperbole, simi-
lar to what occurs in 50:20, where it says that in the days to come no sin will be
found in Judah.
for they, all of them, shall know me. Anticipated in 24:7. See also Hos
2:22[Eng 2:20].
from the least of them to the greatest of them. The gamut here in this stereo-
typical expression is not age but social standing (see Note on 6:13). Jeremiah
discovered earlier that neither the poor nor the great knew Yahweh's way (5:4-
5). The prefixed lemin on lemiqtanniim indicates the starting point; thus: "from
the least of them ... " (GKC §I I 9c n. 2).
for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will not remember again. Another
syntactic chiasmus like the one in v 33, reversing the wording and thought of
I4:IO; also Hos 8:13 (K. Gross I930: 4). This is the really new element in the
new covenant (Skinner 1926: 329; B. W. Anderson I 964: 235-36; Romer I 991;
Krafovec 1993), finding expression elsewhere in Jeremiah and the prophets
after him (33:8; 50:20; Ezek 36:22-32; Isa 43:25; 44:22; 55:7). Yahweh is merci-
ful and gracious, according to the divine self-asseveration of Exod 34:6-7, and
one who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet at the same time a God
who will not clear the guilty, punishing offenders to the third and fourth gen-
eration (cf. Jer 32:I8). Only recently Yahweh offered to pardon (sl~) Jerusalem
if just one righteous man could be found (5:1, 7) or if people would repent and