Jeremiah 24:7 is a promise that God himself will change the hearts of his people so they know him and return to him wholeheartedly. The verse describes God acting first, giving the capacity to know him, and then the people responding with their whole heart. God speaks it through the prophet Jeremiah to the exiles of Judah who had been carried off to Babylon.
I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God; for they will return to me with their whole heart.
Jeremiah 24:7 (WEB)
What Jeremiah 24:7 Means
The verse begins with God’s action: “I will give them a heart to know me.” In Hebrew thought the heart is the center of understanding, will and desire, not merely emotion. So the promise is that God will reshape the inner life of his people so they can recognize who he is and what he is like. Knowing God here is relational and personal, not just having information about him.
The second half describes the result. “They will be my people, and I will be their God” is the old covenant formula, a restored relationship in which God is faithful to them and they belong to him. The return “with their whole heart” means a turning back that is undivided, not a half-hearted or merely outward repentance. The verse promises a genuine change of heart, though it does not describe every detail of how that will unfold for every individual.
The Context of Jeremiah 24:7
Jeremiah 24 comes after the first deportation of Judah to Babylon, around 597 BC. In a vision the prophet sees two baskets of figs, one of good figs and one of rotten figs. The good figs stand for the exiles already taken away, whom God says he will regard for good. The rotten figs stand for King Zedekiah, the remaining leaders, and those who stayed in Jerusalem or fled to Egypt, who will be judged harshly.
Read in that setting, verse 7 is a word of hope for people who have lost their land, their temple and their king. It is not a reward for their goodness, since the surrounding verses show God’s decision rests on his own purposes. The verse looks ahead to a restoration in which exile will not have the last word, and the people’s knowledge of God will be rebuilt from the inside out.
Key Phrases in Jeremiah 24:7
Ezekiel 36:26
I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
(WEB)
Ezekiel gives a parallel promise that God will give a new heart and a new spirit to his people. Read alongside Jeremiah 24:7, it shows that the inner renewal of the heart is a central theme of God’s restoration of Israel.
Jeremiah 31:33
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the LORD: I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
(WEB)
This verse speaks of the new covenant in which God writes his law on the hearts of his people. It expands the promise of Jeremiah 24:7 into a fuller picture of how God will make his people belong to him from within.
A Short Prayer From Jeremiah 24:7
Lord, you know how divided my heart can be, pulled toward my own plans and my own comfort. I ask you to give me a heart that truly knows you, not just in my head but in my daily choices. Where I have wandered, draw me back to you with my whole heart. Let me know that I am yours and that you are my God. Amen.
