What is the context?
The Lord’s final word turns from Jerusalem’s broken covenant to His own promise. He will remember the covenant made in its youth and establish an everlasting covenant.
Jerusalem will receive its older and younger sisters as daughters, but this will not be something its broken covenant has earned. The Lord Himself will establish the relationship, and the people will know Him.
The ending joins mercy with a changed response. When the Lord makes atonement for all Jerusalem has done, the city remembers, is ashamed and no longer answers with self-justification.
The long story therefore ends with God dealing with the guilt that Jerusalem could not remove. Its future rests on His act of mercy, which leaves no room for the pride that drove its unfaithfulness.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Henry sees the promise partly fulfilled in the return from Babylon and more fully in the gospel. Wesley traces the covenant promise through Abraham and its renewal after Egypt, then connects the sisters becoming daughters with Gentiles entering the community of God’s people.
The USCCB note on verse 60 emphasizes renewal of the Sinai covenant in a new, Spirit-empowered way. The Cambridge commentary connects the lasting covenant with forgiveness, God’s law within His people and the new heart promised elsewhere in Ezekiel.
These readings emphasize different aspects of the covenant’s continuity and fulfillment. They agree that the ending depends on God’s promised mercy and a renewed relationship with Him, rather than Jerusalem’s past conduct earning its restoration.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Hebrews 8:6–13 identifies Jesus as the mediator of a better covenant and quotes Jeremiah’s promise of God’s law written within His people, their knowing Him and the forgiveness of their sins.
Hebrews 10:10–18 connects that forgiveness with Jesus’ once-for-all offering. After quoting the covenant promise, it explains that where sins are forgiven, another offering for them is no longer needed.
Hebrews is quoting Jeremiah rather than Ezekiel 16. Yet it explains the larger covenant hope found here: God supplies forgiveness through Christ and forms a people who know Him. Mercy answers the guilt exposed by the story and calls forth humility in those who receive it.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.