Jeremiah Buys a Field

32 This is 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 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was around Jerusalem. And Jeremiah the man of God was shut up in the open space of the prison, in the house of the king of Judah. ³ For King Zedekiah of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you speak these things in the Lord’s name? You have said, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am giving this city to the king of Babylon, and he will take it. ⁴ King Zedekiah of Judah will not get away from the Babylonians. For sure he will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon. He will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. ⁵ He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him,” says the Lord. “If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not win.”’”

⁶ Jeremiah said, “The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁷ ‘Hanamel, the son of your father’s brother Shallum, will come to you and say, “Buy my field at Anathoth. For because of your place in the family you have the right to buy it.”’ ⁸ Then Hanamel, the son of my father’s brother, came to me in the open space of the prison, as the Word of the Lord had said. And he said to me, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. For you have the right to own it. Because of your place in the family you have the right, so buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the Word of the Lord. ⁹ So I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel, the son of my father’s brother. And I weighed out seventeen pieces of silver for him. ¹⁰ I wrote my name and put my mark on the agreement, and called in people to watch. And I weighed the silver. ¹¹ Then I took the agreement which showed that I had bought the field, both the agreement which was not to be opened, and the open one. ¹² And I gave the written agreement to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. This was seen by Hanamel, the son of my father’s brother, and by those who watched me write my name on the agreement, and by all the Jews who were sitting in the open space of the prison. ¹³ I said to Baruch in front of them, ¹⁴ ‘This is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says: “Take these agreements, both the closed and open one, and put them in a clay jar so they may last a long time.” ¹⁵ For the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Houses and fields and grape-fields will again be bought in this land.”’

Jeremiah’s Prayer

¹⁶ “After I had given the agreement showing I had bought the field to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying, ¹⁷ ‘O Lord God! See, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your long arm! Nothing is too hard for You! ¹⁸ You show loving-kindness to thousands, but put punishment for the sins of fathers on their children after them. O great and powerful God, the Lord of All is Your name. ¹⁹ You are great in wisdom and powerful in Your works. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men. You pay every one for what he does and for the fruit of what he does. ²⁰ You have made special things to see and have done wonders in the land of Egypt, and are still doing them even to this day both in Israel and among all men. You have made a name for Yourself as it is today. ²¹ You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with special things to see and with wonders, and with a strong hand and a long arm, and with much trouble. ²² And You gave them this land which You promised their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ They came in and took it for their own. But they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your Law. They did not do anything that You told them to do. So You have made all this trouble come upon them. ²⁴ See, a battle-wall has been built up against the city to take it. And the city is given to the Babylonians who fight against it, because of the sword, hunger, and disease. What You have said would happen has now happened, as You see. ²⁵ O Lord God, You have said to me, “Buy the field with money, and call in people to see you buy it,” even though the city will be given over to the Babylonians.”’”

²⁶ Then the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁷ “I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for Me? ²⁸ So this is what the Lord says: ‘See, I am giving this city to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. ²⁹ The Babylonians who are fighting against this city will come into it and set this city on fire and burn it. And the houses will burn where people have given special perfume to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink gifts to other gods to make Me angry. ³⁰ For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only what is sinful in My eyes since they were young. The sons of Israel have been only making Me angry by the work of their hands,” says the Lord. ³¹ ‘This city has made Me very angry since the day they built it until now. So I will put it away from before My face ³² because of all the sin of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, which they have done to make Me angry. They have sinned together with their kings, their leaders, their religious leaders, their men who speak in My name, the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem. ³³ They have turned their back to Me, and not their face. I taught them again and again, but they would not listen and learn. ³⁴ They put their things that I hate in the house which is called by My name, and made it unclean. ³⁵ They built the high places of the false god Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to give their sons and daughters as burnt gifts to Molech. I did not tell them to do this hated thing that made Judah sin. It did not even come into My mind.

A Promise for the Future

³⁶ “So now this is what the Lord God of Israel says about this city of which you say, ‘It is given over to the king of Babylon because of the sword, hunger, and disease.’ ³⁷ I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My strong anger. And I will bring them back to this place to live where they will be safe. ³⁸ They will be My people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an agreement with them that I will not turn away from them. I will do good to them, an agreement that will last forever. And I will help them fear Me in their hearts so they will not turn away from Me. ⁴¹ I will have joy in doing good to them. And I will be faithful to plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul. ⁴² For the Lord says, ‘Just as I brought all this trouble on these people, so I am going to bring all the good on them that I have promised them. ⁴³ Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is a waste, without man or animal. It is given over to the Babylonians.” ⁴⁴ Men will buy fields for money, write their names and put their marks on agreements while people watch them do this in the land of Benjamin and in the places around Jerusalem. Also they will do this in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the Negev. For I will bring them back to their own land,’ says the Lord.”