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The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.
Jeremiah 31:3 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
  • KJV The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
  • NKJV The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
  • NASB The Lord appeared to him long ago, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you out with kindness.
  • NLT Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God declares that He has loved Israel with an everlasting love and drawn them with loving kindness. His covenant love, not their merit, is the ground of restoration.

Overview

This cherished verse reveals the source of all God's saving acts: an eternal, faithful, covenant love that draws His people to Himself. God's love precedes and produces their return, just as His grace precedes salvation. It beautifully foreshadows the gospel, where God's everlasting love draws sinners to Himself in Christ (John 6:44).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 24

  • Ps 103:17But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children—
  • Isa 54:8–9In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.
  • Hos 11:4I led them with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them.
  • Eph 2:4–5But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
  • Deut 33:3Surely You love the people; all the holy ones are in Your hand, and they sit down at Your feet; each receives Your words—
  • 1 Jn 4:19We love because He first loved us.
  • Deut 7:7–9The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
  • 2 Tim 1:9He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.
  • Eph 1:3–5Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
  • Rom 8:30And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
  • Isa 45:17But Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will not be put to shame or humiliated, to ages everlasting.
  • Titus 3:3–6For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
  • Deut 10:15Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.
  • 2 Th 2:13–16But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.
  • John 6:44–45“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
  • Mal 1:2“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved,
  • Song 1:4Take me away with you—let us hurry! May the king bring me to his chambers. We will rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. It is only right that they adore you.
  • Rom 11:28–29Regarding the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but regarding election, they are loved on account of the patriarchs.
  • 1 Pet 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
  • Hos 11:1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
  • Deut 4:37Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt by His presence and great power,
  • Jas 1:18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.
  • Deut 33:26“There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.
  • Rom 9:13So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Jeremiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Jeremiah 31:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JeremiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.

How Jeremiah 31:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.