Text: Jeremiah 31:30
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 24:16
Subject: proverb of sour grapes
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Jeremiah 31:30 promises that under the new covenant "everyone will die for his own iniquity" (בַּעֲוֹנוֹ יָמוּת, ba'avono yamut), echoing the Deuteronomic legal principle of individual responsibility: "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin" (Deut 24:16). Jeremiah applies this principle eschatologically — in the new covenant era, the proverb "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (31:29) will no longer apply. The connection shows Jeremiah drawing on Deuteronomic case law to articulate the new covenant's transformation: while corporate solidarity defined the old covenant's judgment pattern, the new covenant will emphasize personal accountability, resolving the tension between inherited guilt and individual responsibility that troubled exilic theology.