Jeremiah Buys a Field

32 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ² For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Judah.

³ For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy? You say: Thus says the Lord: I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it, ⁴ and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. ⁵ And he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he will be until I visit him, says the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.”

⁶ So Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁷ Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field that is in Anathoth. For the right of redemption is yours to buy it.”

⁸ So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord and said to me, “Please buy my field, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance and the redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself.”

Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. ⁹ I bought the field of Hanamel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels^[a] of silver. ¹⁰ I signed and sealed the deed, and summoned witnesses, and weighed the money from him in the balances. ¹¹ So I took the deed of purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open. ¹² And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison.

¹³ I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, ¹⁴ Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this sealed deed of purchase and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel that they may last many days. ¹⁵ For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

¹⁶ Now when I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying:

¹⁷ Ah Lord God! Truly, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm, and there is nothing too hard for You. ¹⁸ You show lovingkindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God. The Lord of Hosts is His name, ¹⁹ great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. ²⁰ You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, and in Israel, and among other men, and have made Yourself a name, as it is today. ²¹ And You have brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with great terror. ²² And You have given them this land, which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ And they entered and possessed it. But they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.

²⁴ See, the siege ramps have come to the city to take it. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence, and what You have spoken has come to pass, as You can see. ²⁵ O Lord God, You have said to me, “Buy the field for money and call in witnesses,” although the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

God Promises the People’s Return

²⁶ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ²⁷ Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for Me? ²⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord: I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it. ²⁹ And the Chaldeans who fight against this city will come and set this city on fire and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger.

³⁰ Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have only done evil before Me from their youth. For the sons of Israel have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says the Lord. ³¹ Indeed this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that I should remove it from before My face, ³² because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and of the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger, they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³³ They have turned their back to Me and not their face. Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened nor received instruction. ³⁴ But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molek, which I had not commanded them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

³⁶ Now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, “It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence”: ³⁷ See, I will gather them out of all countries wherever I have driven them in My anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. ³⁸ And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for their good and for their children after them. ⁴⁰ And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good. But I will put My fear in their hearts so that they shall not depart from Me. ⁴¹ Indeed, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul.

⁴² For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great calamity upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. ⁴³ Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, It is desolate, without man or beast. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. ⁴⁴ Men will buy fields for money, sign and seal deeds, and call in witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes, says the Lord.