It makes it clearer to me and this helps me to nail all the angles,I appreciate your help with this.

> To find out what "those days" are
> and to understand the verb tense, and the
> references to both Israel and Judah, you
> have to realize that Paul was quoting an OT
> passage.

> The future verb tense is from the OT
> prophecy. When Paul quotes it several
> hundred years later he quotes the future
> tense from the prophecy, but in fact the
> prophecy refers to events that were
> fulfilled in Jesus and are therefore already
> past events to Paul.

> The actual passage is from Jer. 31. But to
> fully understand and put it into context its
> good to go a couple of chapters further
> back. In Chapter 29 Jeremiah is writing soon
> after Judah was carried away captive to
> Babylon by Nebudchanezzar. He's writing to
> some of the captives.

> Jer 29:1 ¶ Now these are the words of the
> letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from
> Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders
> which were carried away captives, and to the
> priests, and to the prophets, and to all the
> people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away
> captive from Jerusalem to Babylon; The
> Lord speaks through Jeremiah to tell the
> captives not to rebel against the captivity,
> but to be at peace with their captors, and
> He promises to bring them back to Palestine
> after 70 years.

> Jer 29:4 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the
> God of Israel, unto all that are carried
> away captives, whom I have caused to be
> carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
> 5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and
> plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
> 6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and
> daughters; and take wives for your sons, and
> give your daughters to husbands, that they
> may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be
> increased there, and not diminished.
> 7 And seek the peace of the city whither I
> have caused you to be carried away captives,
> and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the
> peace thereof shall ye have peace. .... 10
> For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy
> years be accomplished at Babylon I will
> visit you, and perform my good word toward
> you, in causing you to return to this place.
> God tells the captive Judaites that they
> are actually blessed to be safe in
> captivity, because He intends to destroy
> those Judaites remaining in Judah who were
> not carried away.

> Jer 29:16 Know that thus saith the LORD of
> (concerning) the king that sitteth upon the
> throne of David, and of all the people that
> dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren
> that are not gone forth with you into
> captivity; 17 Thus saith the LORD of hosts;
> Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the
> famine, and the pestilence, and will make
> them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten,
> they are so evil.
> 18 And I will persecute them with the sword,
> with the famine, and with the pestilence,
> and will deliver them to be removed to all
> the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse,
> and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a
> reproach, among all the nations whither I
> have driven them: In chapter 30 Jeremiah
> prophesies that once they have been punished
> enough so that they remember the Lord, God
> will bring the captives back from captivity
> and restore them into the land.

> Jer 30:3 For, lo, the days come, saith the
> LORD, that I will bring again the captivity
> of my people Israel and Judah, saith the
> LORD: and I will cause them to return to the
> land that I gave to their fathers, and they
> shall possess it...

> Jer 30:10 ¶ Therefore fear thou not, O my
> servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be
> dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save
> thee from afar, and thy seed from the land
> of their captivity; and Jacob shall return,
> and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none
> shall make him afraid. ...

> Jer 30:15 Why criest thou for thine
> affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the
> multitude of thine iniquity: because thy
> sins were increased, I have done these
> things unto thee. ...

> Jer 30:17 For I will restore health unto
> thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds,
> saith the LORD; because they called thee an
> Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man
> seeketh after.
> 18 ¶ Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will
> bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents,
> and have mercy on his dwellingplaces;...

> 22 And ye shall be my people, and I will be
> your God. This same prophecy continues in
> Chapter 31.

> Jer 31:1 ¶ At the same time, saith the
> LORD, will I be the God of all the families
> of Israel, and they shall be my people.
> 2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were
> left of the sword found grace in the
> wilderness; even Israel, when I went to
> cause him to rest. The Lord begins to
> describe how he will bring back the captives
> from Babylon and from the other countries
> where they have been scattered.

> Jer 31:7 For thus saith the LORD; Sing
> with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the
> chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye,
> and say, O LORD, save thy people, the
> remnant of Israel. 8 Behold, I will bring
> them from the north country, and gather them
> from the coasts of the earth, and with them
> the blind and the lame, the woman with child
> and her that travaileth with child together:
> a great company shall return thither....

> 10... He that scattered Israel will gather
> him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his
> flock....

> Jer 31:27 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the
> LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel
> and the house of Judah with the seed of man,
> and with the seed of beast.
> 28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I
> have watched over them, to pluck up, and to
> break down, and to throw down, and to
> destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch
> over them, to build, and to plant, saith the
> LORD....

> 28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I
> have watched over them, to pluck up, and to
> break down, and to throw down, and to
> destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch
> over them, to build, and to plant, saith the
> LORD.
> 29 In those days they shall say no more, The
> fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the
> children's teeth are set on edge.
> 30 But every one shall die for his own
> iniquity: every man that eateth the sour
> grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
> Notice that promise here. God says that
> people will no longer suffer for the sins of
> others, but for their own sins. In other
> words God will deal with every person
> individually. Not as a part of a group.

> Now here's the part Paul was quoting in
> Hebrews.

> Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the
> LORD, that I will make a new covenant with
> the house of Israel, and with the house of
> Judah:
> 32 Not according to the covenant that I made
> with their fathers in the day that I took
> them by the hand to bring them out of the
> land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake,
> although I was an husband unto them, saith
> the LORD:
> 33 But this shall be the covenant that I
> will make with the house of Israel; After
> those days, saith the LORD, I will put my
> law in their inward parts, and write it in
> their hearts; and will be their God, and
> they shall be my people.
> 34 And they shall teach no more every man
> his neighbour, and every man his brother,
> saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all
> know me, from the least of them unto the
> greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will
> forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
> their sin no more.

> So to resume:

> After what days?
> After the 70 years of exile, and after God
> brings the captives back from the various
> countries where they were to be scattered.

> And what would God do then?
> He would make a new covenant with all his
> people.

> That includes:

> not only JUDAH
> (which had, in Jeremiah's day just been
> invaded and most of the people carried away
> as captives).

> But also ISRAEL
> The kingdom of Israel made up of 10 of the
> 13 tribes had been carried away captive by
> the Assyrians over a hundred years earlier
> and they had been dispersed into all the
> earth and had totally ceased to exist an any
> kind of earthly people. They never did
> reappear as an earthly people.

> So the only possible interpretation of
> "Israel" in Jeremiah's prophecy is
> the "totality of God's people". In
> that sense, in the old testament, Israel
> included all 13 tribes.

> But let's not forget the verse about God
> sowing Israel with the "seed of
> men"? (gentiles)

> Because of this and other prophecies that
> mention the return of Israel (the ten lost
> tribes) the Jews of Jesus' time though that
> the messiah would somehow bring the missing
> tribes back to Palestine.

> What they didn't understand was that the
> promise was never to flesh Israel. Even from
> the very start, the promises of God were
> always to those of faith, "spiritual
> Israel".

> Jeremiah probably didn't understand that he
> was prophesying about Gentiles and Jews
> together becoming Spiritual Israel through
> faith in Jesus.

> But Paul (several hundred years later)
> certainly understood it all and the reason
> he quotes that passage is to show that the
> creation of the church and it's place as the
> true spiritual Israel of God were prophesied
> by the Old Testament prophets.

> The true Israel is only spiritual Israel.

> Ro 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one
> outwardly; neither is that circumcision,
> which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is
> a Jew, which is one inwardly; and
> circumcision is that of the heart, in the
> spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise
> is not of men, but of God.

> 1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that
> flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
> of God; neither doth corruption inherit
> incorruption.

> Ga 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are
> of faith, the same are the children of
> Abraham.

> Ga 3:29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye
> Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
> promise.

> Joh 8:39 They answered and said unto him,
> Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto
> them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye
> would do the works of Abraham. ... 41 Ye do
> the deeds of your father.... Then said they
> to him, We be not born of fornication; we
> have one Father, even God.
> 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your
> Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded
> forth and came from God;... 44 Ye are of
> your father the devil, and the lusts of your
> father ye will do.