What a covenant is in the Bible: from Noah to the new covenant

What a covenant is

In Hebrew, berit is a solemn commitment between two parties, with promises and obligations. When God establishes it, he is the one who offers it and the one who guarantees it. It is not a contract between equals: it is God binding himself to his own word.

With Noah: life on the earth

After the flood, God says: “I am establishing my covenant with you and with your offspring after you” (Genesis 9:9). He promises not to destroy the earth with a flood again, and he sets the bow in the clouds as a sign.

With Abraham: offspring and a land

“On that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram” (Genesis 15:18). Later he calls it “an everlasting covenant, to be Elohim to you and to your offspring after you” (Genesis 17:7). Through this family, God will bless all the nations (Genesis 12:3).

With Israel at Sinai, and with David

At Sinai, God makes a covenant with the whole people he brought out of Egypt and gives them his law (Exodus 19–24). Later he promises David that his house and his kingdom will be firm forever (2 Samuel 7:16); David himself calls it an “eternal covenant” in his last words (2 Samuel 23:5).

The new covenant

Israel broke the covenant again and again. But through Jeremiah God announces something new: “days are coming, declares YHWH, when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31). This time his law will not be on stones, but in the heart: “I will put my instruction within them, and on their heart I will write it” (Jeremiah 31:33).

At the Last Supper, Jesus takes the cup and calls it the new covenant in his blood (Luke 22:20), and the letter to the Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s promise to explain what the Messiah did (Hebrews 8:8-12). The whole story of the covenants flows into that.