JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books, and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how-to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This week I’m recommending  the  ATN X-Sight II night vision scope. (See the Gear & Grub section.)

Books:

It has been several years since I last mentioned this very useful book for prepping newbies: Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios

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Our congrats to Candace Owens. Her latest book is still ranked #2 overall, at Amazon: Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation

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Preserving Everything: Can, Culture, Pickle, Freeze, Ferment, Dehydrate, Salt, Smoke, and Store Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, Milk, and More (Countryman Know How)

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Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording. Note: This popular book was first published in 1999, so used copies can often be found inexpensively on Amazon and eBay.

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Between the Restoration and the Glorious Revolution, the Stuart Kings Charles II and James II succeeded in using select militias loyal to them to suppress political dissidents, in part by disarming their opponents. Under the auspices of the 1671 Game Act, for example, the Catholic James II had ordered general disarmaments of regions home to his Protestant enemies. These experiences caused Englishmen to be extremely wary of concentrated military forces run by the state and to be jealous of their arms. They accordingly obtained an assurance from William and Mary, in the Declaration of Right (which was codified as the English Bill of Rights), that Protestants would never be disarmed: “That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law.” This right has long been understood to be the predecessor to our Second Amendment. It was clearly an individual right, having nothing whatever to do with service in a militia. To be sure, it was an individual right not available to the whole population, given that it was restricted to Protestants, and like all written English rights it was held only against the Crown, not Parliament. But it was secured to them as individuals, according to “libertarian political principles,” not as members of a fighting force.”” – Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Scalia’s Court: A Legacy of Landmark Opinions and Dissents

 

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — October 6, 2020

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Today is the birthday of science fiction author David Brin. (born, 1950.) He wrote The Postman, which was very loosely the foundation of a movie by Kevin Costner.

October 6 is also the birthday of Thor Heyerdahl. (Born 1914, died April 18, 2002.) Although his east-to-west theory of Pacific Ocean transmigration was later disproved by genetics studies, his many adventures were still remarkable.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 91 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 91 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

The Great Conservative Migration, by Brandon Smith

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This article first appeared under the longer title: “The Great Conservative Migration And What It Means For The Future”, at Brandon Smith’s excellent Alt.Market web site. It is reposted with permission.

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The signs really began to become visible at the end of January, 2020; there was an exodus of people brewing, and it was galvanizing fears on both sides of the political spectrum. The pandemic situation is cited by the mainstream media as the primary cause, but in reality the migration had started at least 3 years earlier. Americans were leaving certain states and cities behind by the tens of thousands, and these places were predominantly leftist in their policies and population. California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc.; all of these progressive states were bleeding residents since 2017, the pandemic just accelerated the situation.

There are a number of reasons given for the dramatic shift in population, but two specific reasons stand above the rest: Economy and political ideals. The pandemic itself is only a minor motivator. Consider the fact that residents of California left the state in droves for Texas over the summer despite the problem of Covid infection spikes in major metropolitan areas of the Lone Star State. People didn’t care, they just wanted to get the hell out of California as quickly as possible.

Again, a main reason given by former Californians was politics. They are conservatives or moderates that felt isolated or trapped in a far-left cesspool and they realized their future life prospects depended on them transplanting to a more free and less bureaucratic place.

The fear among conservatives was that the pandemic would smoke leftists out of their hives and that they would spread to more conservative areas and “take over”. This does not seem to be the case. In fact, it appears that most leftists are stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that their states are dying and are actively defending state policies on the web. Check out the angry and delusional comments from California progressives on this opinion article in Arizona telling them to leave their failed policies behind if they move to the state.

These people are suffering from some serious saltiness, and the fact they are still trying to claim that states like California are economically stable shows how truly delusional they are. Conservative states have nothing to worry about – The lefties are too dumb to relocate. They’re going to sit within the rotting corpses of the states they killed and pretend it smells like roses. This is what they do; when they are wrong or when they have failed they double and triple down. It’s their defining characteristic.

In my state of Montana real estate purchases have surged over the past year. Recent data on school enrollment numbers are up 15% – 20% in cities like Missoula. This includes new students in public schools as well as those registered for homeschooling, and it’s a massive spike for the region. The majority of new students are recent transplants from other states. I have spoken with hundreds of these people personally and ALL of them said they were moving to Montana because they were conservative, many of them were preppers and many of them wanted to be around other conservatives in the event that the world continues on its current downward spiral.Continue reading“The Great Conservative Migration, by Brandon Smith”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on another backcountry bush plane flying video. (See the Idaho section.) Pictured is Trent Palmer’s plane, with oversize Tundra Tires.

Idaho

Tim. J. wrote to recommend another great Jonas Marcinko bush flying video, in the Idaho backcountry: Don’t fly during wildfires… ( Part 3.)  His description:

“Trent Palmer, Ty Firkin, and myself. Flew into the Idaho backcountry during fire season and there was a lot of smoke. We camped near a forest fire a few miles from  Johnston Creek, Idaho. The smoke from Oregon and Wyoming, wildfire started drifting towards us, we decided to venture east to Stanley, Idaho, and Smiley creek, Where we flew into a secret hot spring.
I then flew home in the worst smoke that I had ever witnessed.”

And here is Trent’s video of the same expedition, in Trent’s distinctive style.  I loved the sequence where the owner of property of with agrass strip just “waved them in.”  How is that for Idaho hospitality to strangers!

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North Idaho TravelCast: Bonners Ferry, Idaho

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Wildfires in southern Idaho affect hunting opportunities

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Each of you begins your career in the Army at a crucial moment in American history. We are restoring the fundamental principles that the job of the American soldier is not to rebuild foreign nations, but defend — and defend strongly –our nation from foreign enemies.
We are ending the era of endless wars. In its place is a renewed, clear-eyed focus on defending America’s vital interests. It is not the duty of U.S. troops to solve ancient conflicts in faraway lands that many people have never even heard of. We are not the policemen of the world.”- President Donald J. Trump, in a U.S. Military Academy West Point speech, June 13, 2020

Preparedness Notes for Monday — October 5, 2020

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October 5, 1703 was the birthday of Jonathan Edwards. He died March 22, 1758. He was a prolific Calvinist theological writer. Many of his writings were later collected in the multi-volume book The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Gerstner.

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Please mark your calendar and wait until the “Book Bomb Day”, Tuesday, October 20th, 2020, to order your copy of my new book, The Ultimate Prepper’s Survival Guide. By concentrating the orders on that day, our goal is to get it into Amazon’s Top 100, and on The New York Times bestsellers list. Thanks!

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Today, we present another product review by Pat Cascio, our Field Gear Editor.

Smith & Wesson Shield M2.0, by Pat Cascio

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I’m not going to make any bones about it, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool, 1911 fan. No matter what size, or who makes them. And I love my Glocks – I haven’t found one that I don’t especially like. I still remember getting my first Glock 17, back when I lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado in the mid-to-late 1980s. I believe I got my Glock 17 in 1987. I actually went to the Long’s Drugs store there, and they carried a nice selection of handguns at the time. I was planning on buying a  Model 1911 in .45 ACP. However, when I got there, I spied the Glock 17 – never saw one before or even heard of it – once it was in my hands, I forgot all about buying a M1911 at that time.

For many years, I said that I would pick a 1911 in .45 ACP as my one and only handgun, and it is still an outstanding selection. However, I started leaning towards the Glock 19, 9mm handgun. Today, if limited to just one handgun for the rest of my life – heaven forbid – it would be the Glock 19X, 9mm. It just seems to have everything I need and nothing that I don’t need.

Over the past few years, I discovered the Smith & Wesson M&P ine of handguns. I especially love their Shield versions. Those are very compact concealed carry pieces, and I’ve owned – still do – quite a few different versions. And to be sure, S&W has more M&P and M&P Shield variants than you care to count. Honestly, if you are looking for a self-defense handgun, and S&W doesn’t have it – then you don’t need it. I really like the Shield 9mm – very concealable and controllable, as is the slightly larger — but not by much — .45 ACP Shield that I often carry. But I don’t especially like the recoil of the .40 S&W Shield model. One of the great things about the Shield product line is that they are very affordable – depending on which model and sights you desire.Continue reading“Smith & Wesson Shield M2.0, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Tomato Omelet

The following recipe is for Tomato Omelet is from The New Butterick Cook Book, by Flora Rose, co-head of the School of Home Economics at Cornell University. It was published in 1924. A professional scan of that 724-page out-of-copyright book will be one of the many bonus items included in the next edition of the waterproof SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. This special 15th Anniversary Edition USB stick should be available for sale in the third week of January, 2021. The 14th Edition sold out quickly, so place a reminder in your calendar, if you want one.

Ingredients
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 4 to 6 eggs
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • Seasonings
Directions
  1. Peel tomatoes, remove the seeds and cut into dice.
  2. Sauté the tomatoes in a Iittle butter or butter substitute, until tender.
  3. Make the omelet in the usual way, first stirring the tomato into the beaten egg.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at sterling silver platters, tea services, and silverware.. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

To start off, here a link to an article that I missed when it was posted by Forbes, back in June: Emerging Technologies To Drive Silver Demand

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Egon von Greyerz: Dark Years And Fourth Turning.  A pericope:

“Since 2009, global debt has doubled to $280 trillion and risk has increased exponentially. The final stage of the collapse started in August of 2019 with the central banks panicking and embarking on a massive money printing spree due to major problems in the financial system.”

Economy & Finance:

At Wolf Street:  Subprime, No Problem? FHA Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record 17.4%, as Fed Triggers Mad Land-Rush in Split Housing Market

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Grim Summer Turns to Long Cold Winter for European Airlines as Passenger Traffic Dives Again

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Podcast — THE WOLF STREET REPORT: What’s Behind the Fed’s Project to Send Free Money to People Directly

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And at Zero Hedge: Hedge Funds Flock To Florida As Wealthy Americans Seek Lower Taxes

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Sunday — October 4, 2020

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October 4th, 1923 was the birthday Charlton Heston, who was born John Charles Carter. He died April 5, 2008. He is often remembered for movies like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, Soylent Green, The Planet of the Apes, and the survivalist classic The Omega Man.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 91 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 91 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Wargaming, by Pudge

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Editor’s Introductory Note:  This article was written by an active-duty Special Operations Forces officer. I’ve confirmed his bona fides. You may recall reading his article on SOP writing, which we posted in April of 2020.

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I’ve been thinking about writing on the topic of Wargaming for quite some time but recent events really pushed me to get it done and hopefully pass on some sage advice. We are currently in some tumultuous times and it pays to be as prepared as possible.

Now that you’ve got your perfect homestead all set up ready for the Schumer to hit the fan, what’s next? Your answer should be wargaming. If you are being honest with yourself, you should have started wargaming far before this but now is better than later. What is wargaming? Wargaming (sometimes called Red Teaming) is a simulation of an armed conflict between multiple parties. It helps stimulate ideas, highlight critical tasks, and provides insight that might not otherwise be discovered. (For some details on wargaming from the U.S. Army SF perspective, see the Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide, GTA 31-01-003) It is a process used to visualize how an event may or likely will unfold and can be used to our advantage in order to improve our position. You should always be improving your foxhole.

Why you should wargame

The key benefit of wargaming is that it allows you to shoot holes in a plan in order to better it and increase the likelihood of success. You should do this before any risk may come to you. It creates a deliberate process to help discover useful insight that may otherwise have been missed. This can also be a good way to work on and verify SOPs. (I’ve previously discussed SOPs in SurvivalBlog.)

Another benefit of wargaming is that it helps you find out where your decision points will be. A decision point is where a key decision must be made in order to follow a certain course of action. These decision points can be time-based or event-based. By already having some of these assessed, you can anticipate them, and in turn make a quicker, more informed choice. It is preferable to make a decision that you can foresee rather than blindly choosing. A very simple analogy to illustrate this point would be knowing your spouse is going to ask what you want to eat the moment you come home. Is it easier to answer when you’ve been busy all day and haven’t thought about it at all, or, if you thought on the way home and know what food is at the house or where you like to eat? If you know it is going to happen, and a decision must be made, then why not be prepared?

Prep work

Prior to wargaming the plan, you must decide what is the desired goal or best achievable outcome. Now you must define your acceptable outcome. (How much stuff are you willing to lose? How many people are you willing to lose? Et cetera.) This can be harsh and scary but you must be realistic when defining your acceptable outcome. If you aren’t realistic, then you will not gain the necessary insight needed for a successful plan.

I’ll use the example of a home security plan. This is a good time to try implementing some of those SOPs. You first have to define what it is you’re preparing for. I suggest starting by looking at your most likely assessed risk, which is probably going to be robbery. What steps have you done to keep someone from robbing your home? From there you can branch off into further scenarios. Such as, looking at it from a Schumer hitting the fan perspective. A well-equipped group of 15-20 marauders shows up and wants to take what is yours. Realistically, what will make them leave and what will ensure they leave?Continue reading“Wargaming, by Pudge”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.

For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” – Hebrews 8 (KJV)