---
title: Jeremiah 31:34
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-31-34/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jeremiah-31-34.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Jeremiah 31:34
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Jeremiah 31:34

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> 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.”

## JW Usage

The Watchtower restricts the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 to "spiritual Israel" — the 144,000 anointed — with Jesus as mediator only for that limited class. The "great crowd" of "other sheep" who make up the millions of present-day Witnesses are taught that they merely "benefit" indirectly from the covenant by associating with the anointed remnant, paralleled with "alien residents" under the old covenant. Key Watchtower statements: "So in this strict Biblical sense Jesus is the 'mediator' only for anointed Christians" (The Watchtower, 1 April 1979, p. 31); "the new covenant is between Jehovah God and spiritual Israel, with Jesus as its Mediator" (God's Word For Us Through Jeremiah, 2010, p. 173). Jeremiah 31:34 is rarely quoted in Watchtower discussions of who is "in" the covenant — and the reason becomes obvious once the verse is read in full.

## Protestant Usage

Jeremiah 31:34 is the verse the Watchtower's two-tier covenant doctrine cannot survive. The covenant promise is explicitly universal: "they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them" (NWT). If the new covenant is restricted to 144,000 spiritual elites, the question answers itself — who are "the least"? The whole point of the phrase is that the covenant has no inner ring and no outer ring; it includes everyone in scope. The second half of the verse states the covenant's purpose: "I will forgive their error, and their sin I will remember no more." Forgiveness is a universal human need. To be excluded from the covenant is to be excluded from the forgiveness it provides — and the Watchtower has done exactly that to its own members. Hebrews 8:11 quotes this verse in full and adds no restriction to a 144,000 class. Used in arguments 081 (direct-relationship-with-god), 089 (new-covenant-anointed-only), 121 (name-the-channel), and 124 (universal-priesthood-1peter29) — the foundation OT text for the protest against any organisational mediator class standing between the believer and Christ.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Come to ME — Direct Relationship with Christ](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/direct-relationship-with-god.md) — Matthew 11:28 / John 15:5 / 1 Timothy 2:5 — No organisation between you and the Saviour [Salvation]
- [The New Covenant Includes All Believers](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-anointed-only.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 / Hebrews 8:11 — 'From the Least to the Greatest' [Salvation]
- [A Royal Priesthood — Every Believer is a Priest](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/universal-priesthood-1peter29.md) — 1 Peter 2:9 / Revelation 1:6 / 5:10 — The end of mediating classes [Authority]
- [Already, But Not Yet — The New Covenant's Direction of Travel](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/inaugurated-eschatology-already-not-yet.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 and 1 Corinthians 13:12 read together [Authority]
- [Ministers of a New Covenant](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-2cor3-direct-mediation.md) — 2 Corinthians 3:6, 18 — Paul's 'us' has no asterisk [Salvation]