This took me some time to install. Just putting it out there in case it helps someone.

Get the latest jq from github

git clone https://github.com/stedolan/jq.git

Update submodules (onigurama)

git submodule update --init

Copy missing auxiliary files

autoreconf -fi

Install into {YOUR_HOME_DIR} with onigurama (regex library)

./configure --with-oniguruma=builtin --disable-maintainer-mode --prefix={YOUR_HOME_DIR}.local

Check that we have all the dependencies downloaded and install

make -j8 && make check

make install

Finally, add this to your ~/.bashrc and to call jq from anywhere. Remember to >source ~/.bashrc and you should be good to go.

export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin/