'Covenant' in the Bible

They have returned to the sins of their ancestors who refused to obey My words and have followed other gods to worship them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah broke My covenant I made with their ancestors.

Because of Your name, don’t despise us.Don’t disdain Your glorious throne.Remember Your covenant with us;do not break it.

They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God and worshiped and served other gods.’”

“Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration.

“Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.

“I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put fear of Me in their hearts so they will never again turn away from Me.

“This is what the Lord says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time,

then also My covenant with My servant David may be broken so that he will not have a son reigning on his throne, and the Levitical priests will not be My ministers.

This is what the Lord says: If I do not keep My covenant with the day and with the night and fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth,

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them,

All the officials and people who entered into covenant to free their male and female slaves—in order not to enslave them any longer—obeyed and freed them.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, saying:

Today you repented and did what pleased Me, each of you proclaiming freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me at the temple called by My name.

As for those who disobeyed My covenant, not keeping the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat them like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.

They will ask about Zion,turning their faces to this road.They will come and join themselves to the Lordin an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

“Then I passed by you and saw you, and you were indeed at the age for love. So I spread the edge of My garment over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

“For this is what the Lord God says: I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant.

I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am Yahweh,

He took one of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. Then he took away the leading men of the land,

so the kingdom might be humble and not exalt itself but might keep his covenant in order to endure.

However, this king revolted against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt so they might give him horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still escape?

“As I live”—this is the declaration of the Lord God—“he will die in Babylon, in the land of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke.

He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. He did all these things even though he gave his hand in pledge. He will not escape!”

Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “As I live, I will bring down on his head My oath that he despised and My covenant that he broke.

“I will make you pass under the rod and will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

Cush, Put, and Lud,and all the various foreign troops,plus Libya and the men of the covenant landwill fall by the sword along with them.

“I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate dangerous animals in the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest.

I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will establish and multiply them and will set My sanctuary among them forever.

When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, to occupy My sanctuary, you defiled My temple while you offered My food—the fat and the blood. You broke My covenant by all your detestable practices.

I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:Ah, Lord—the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands—

He will make a firm covenantwith many for one week,but in the middle of the weekhe will put a stop to sacrifice and offering.And the abomination of desolationwill be on a wing of the templeuntil the decreed destructionis poured out on the desolator.”

A flood of forces will be swept away before him; they will be shattered, as well as the covenant prince.

The king of the North will return to his land with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant; he will take action, then return to his own land.

Ships of Kittim will come against him, and being intimidated, he will withdraw. Then he will rage against the holy covenant and take action. On his return, he will favor those who abandon the holy covenant.

With flattery he will corrupt those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will be strong and take action.

On that day I will make a covenant for themwith the wild animals, the birds of the sky,and the creatures that crawl on the ground.I will shatter bow, sword,and weapons of war in the landand will enable the people to rest securely.

But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant;there they have betrayed Me.

Put the horn to your mouth!One like an eagle comesagainst the house of the Lord,because they transgress My covenantand rebel against My law.

Ephraim chases the windand pursues the east wind.He continually multiplies lies and violence.He makes a covenant with Assyria,and olive oil is carried to Egypt.

As for you,because of the blood of your covenant,I will release your prisonersfrom the waterless cistern.

Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples.

Then you will know that I sent you this decree so My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the Lord of Hosts.

“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave these to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

“You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Hosts.

Don’t all of us have one Father? Didn’t one God create us? Why then do we act treacherously against one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Yet you ask, “For what reason?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have acted treacherously against her, though she was your marriage partner and your wife by covenant.

“See, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to His temple, the Messenger of the covenant you desire—see, He is coming,” says the Lord of Hosts.

For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.

He said to them, “This is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many.

He has dealt mercifully with our fathersand remembered His holy covenant—

In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you.

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.

Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs.

Since He raised Him from the dead, never to return to decay, He has spoken in this way, I will grant you the faithful covenant blessings made to David.

And this will be My covenant with themwhen I take away their sins.

In the same way, after supper He also took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant established by My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life.

but their minds were closed. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.

Brothers, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to even a human covenant that has been ratified.

And I say this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God and cancel the promise.

So Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.

But Jesus has now obtained a superior ministry, and to that degree He is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been legally enacted on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one.

But finding fault with His people, He says:Look, the days are coming, says the Lord,when I will make a new covenantwith the house of Israeland with the house of Judah—

not like the covenantthat I made with their ancestorson the day I took them by their handsto lead them out of the land of Egypt.I disregarded them, says the Lord,because they did not continue in My covenant.

But this is the covenantthat I will make with the house of Israelafter those days, says the Lord:I will put My laws into their mindsand write them on their hearts.I will be their God,and they will be My people.

By saying, a new covenant, He has declared that the first is old. And what is old and aging is about to disappear.

Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary.

It contained the gold altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, covered with gold on all sides, in which there was a gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

That is why even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood.

saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you.

This is the covenant I will make with themafter those days, says the Lord:I will put My laws on their heartsand write them on their minds,

How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

to Jesus (mediator of a new covenant), and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.

Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—with the blood of the everlasting covenant,

God’s sanctuary in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His sanctuary. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings of thunder, an earthquake, and severe hail.