Why Jeremiah Bought Property

32 The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ² Now at the time the king of Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah. ³ For King Zedekiah of Judah had shut him up, saying: “Why do you prophesy and say, thus says Adonai: ‘I will soon give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; ⁴ and King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him mouth to mouth and his eyes will behold his eyes; ⁵ and he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there will he remain until I take note of him,’ says Adonai—though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not succeed?”

⁶ So Jeremiah said: “The word of Adonai came to me, saying: ⁷ ‘Hanamel, son of Shallum your uncle, will soon come to you saying: ‘Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.’” ⁸ So my uncle’s son Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard as was the word of Adonai, and said to me: “Buy my field, please, which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of Adonai. ⁹ So I bought the field that was in Anathoth from the son of my uncle Hanamel, and weighed him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰ I signed and sealed the deed, called in witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. ¹¹ Then I took the purchase deed, both the sealed copy, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy, ¹² and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my uncle’s son Hanamel and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the purchase deed, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the guard. ¹³ Then I charged Baruch before them, saying, ¹⁴ thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds—this purchase deed, both the sealed copy and the open copy—and put them in a clay jar, so they may last many days.” ¹⁵ For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards will yet again be bought in this land.”

¹⁶ After I had given the purchase deed to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to Adonai, saying: ¹⁷ “Ah, my Lord Adonai! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm—nothing is too hard for You! ^{[a] 18} You are the One doing mercy to thousands, but repaying the iniquity of the fathers into the lap of their children after them. Great, mighty God, Adonai-Tzva’ot is His Name! ¹⁹ Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. ^{[b] 20} You set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day in Israel and among mankind, and made Yourself a Name, as to this day. ²¹ You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. ²² You gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ They came in and possessed it. But they did not obey your voice nor walk in your Torah. They have done nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you caused all this evil to fall on them. ²⁴ Look, the siege ramps have just come up to the city to take it. The city has been handed over to the Chaldeans fighting against it, because of the sword, the famine and the pestilence. What You have spoken has happened. Here it is, You see it. ²⁵ Yet You said to me, my Lord Adonai: ‘Buy for yourself the field for money and call in witnesses’—even as the city is handed over to the Chaldeans.”

²⁶ Then came the word of Adonai to Jeremiah, saying: ²⁷ “Behold, I am Adonai, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?” ²⁸ Therefore thus says Adonai: “I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. ²⁹ Then the Chaldeans fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses—where they burned incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink-offerings to other gods, to provoke Me. ³⁰ For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in My sight from their youth; indeed, the children of Israel have done nothing but provoke Me with the work of their hands,” declares Adonai.

³¹ “Indeed this city has caused My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it up to this day,^[c] so that I will remove it from before My face, ³² because of all the evil the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done to provoke Me—they, their kings, their princes, their kohanim, their prophets, 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 early and often, they have not listened to receive instruction. ³⁴ Instead they set up their abominations in the House where My Name is called, to defile it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to make their sons and their daughters pass through fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor did it enter My mind that they would do this loathsome thing, causing Judah to sin.”

³⁶ Now therefore thus says Adonai, the God of Israel, concerning this city, about which you say, “It is handed over to the king of Babylon by the sword, famine, and pestilence.

³⁷ “See, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in My anger, My fury, and great wrath, and I will bring them back to this place and cause them to dwell securely. ³⁸ They will be My people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ I will give them one heart^[d] and one way, so they may fear Me forever; for their good and for their children after them.

⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good for them. I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will not depart from Me.

⁴¹ “Yes, I will delight in doing good for them, and with all My heart and all My soul I will in truth plant them in this land.”

⁴² For thus says Adonai: “Just as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. ⁴³ So fields will be bought in this land, about which you are saying: ‘It will be a desolation, without man or beast; it is handed over to the Chaldeans.’ ⁴⁴ Men will buy fields for money and sign and seal the deeds and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the areas around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, in the towns of the hill-country, in the towns of the foothills, and in the cities of the South—because I will bring them back from exile.” It is a declaration of Adonai.