Jeremiah 32
32
Jeremiah’s Land Purchase
1The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah,#32:1a The tenth year of Zedekiah’s reign and the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was 587 b.c. king of Judah. This was also the eighteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.#32:1b Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar; also in 32:28. 2Jerusalem was then under siege from the Babylonian army, and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. 3King Zedekiah had put him there, asking why he kept giving this prophecy: “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it. 4King Zedekiah will be captured by the Babylonians#32:4 Or Chaldeans; also in 32:5, 24, 25, 28, 29, 43. and taken to meet the king of Babylon face to face. 5He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and I will deal with him there,’ says the Lord. ‘If you fight against the Babylonians, you will never succeed.’”
6At that time the Lord sent me a message. He said, 7“Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’”
8Then, just as the Lord had said he would, my cousin Hanamel came and visited me in the prison. He said, “Please buy my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else, so buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that the message I had heard was from the Lord.
9So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces#32:9 Hebrew 17 shekels, about 7 ounces or 194 grams in weight. of silver for it. 10I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver, and paid him. 11Then I took the sealed deed and an unsealed copy of the deed, which contained the terms and conditions of the purchase, 12and I handed them to Baruch son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I did all this in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed, and all the men of Judah who were there in the courtyard of the guardhouse.
13Then I said to Baruch as they all listened, 14“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy, and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.’ 15For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’”
Jeremiah’s Prayer
16Then after I had given the papers to Baruch, I prayed to the Lord:
17“O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you! 18You show unfailing love to thousands, but you also bring the consequences of one generation’s sin upon the next. You are the great and powerful God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 19You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles. You see the conduct of all people, and you give them what they deserve. 20You performed miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt—things still remembered to this day! And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world. You have made your name famous to this day.
21“You brought Israel out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders, with a strong hand and powerful arm, and with overwhelming terror. 22You gave the people of Israel this land that you had promised their ancestors long before—a land flowing with milk and honey. 23Our ancestors came and conquered it and lived in it, but they refused to obey you or follow your word. They have not done anything you commanded. That is why you have sent this terrible disaster upon them.
24“See how the siege ramps have been built against the city walls! Through war, famine, and disease, the city will be handed over to the Babylonians, who will conquer it. Everything has happened just as you said. 25And yet, O Sovereign Lord, you have told me to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even though the city will soon be handed over to the Babylonians.”
A Prediction of Jerusalem’s Fall
26Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 27“I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me? 28Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will hand this city over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will capture it. 29The Babylonians outside the walls will come in and set fire to the city. They will burn down all these houses where the people provoked my anger by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out liquid offerings to other gods. 30Israel and Judah have done nothing but wrong since their earliest days. They have infuriated me with all their evil deeds,” says the Lord. 31“From the time this city was built until now, it has done nothing but anger me, so I am determined to get rid of it.
32“The sins of Israel and Judah—the sins of the people of Jerusalem, the kings, the officials, the priests, and the prophets—have stirred up my anger. 33My people have turned their backs on me and have refused to return. Even though I diligently taught them, they would not receive instruction or obey. 34They have set up their abominable idols right in my own Temple, defiling it. 35They have built pagan shrines to Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing. What an incredible evil, causing Judah to sin so greatly!
A Promise of Restoration
36“Now I want to say something more about this city. You have been saying, ‘It will fall to the king of Babylon through war, famine, and disease.’ But this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 37I will certainly bring my people back again from all the countries where I will scatter them in my fury. I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety. 38They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. 40And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. 41I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.
42“This is what the Lord says: Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them. 43Fields will again be bought and sold in this land about which you now say, ‘It has been ravaged by the Babylonians, a desolate land where people and animals have all disappeared.’ 44Yes, fields will once again be bought and sold—deeds signed and sealed and witnessed—in the land of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the hill country, in the foothills of Judah#32:44 Hebrew the Shephelah. and in the Negev, too. For someday I will restore prosperity to them. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
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Jeremiah 32: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Jeremias (Jeremiah) 32
32
1The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the tenth year of Sedecias king of Juda: the same is the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor.
2At that time, the army of the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremias the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison which was in the house of the king of Juda.
3For Sedecias king of Juda had shut him up, saying: Why dost thou prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it?
4And Sedecias king of Juda shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans: but he shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon. And he shall speak to him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes.
5And he shall lead Sedecias to Babylon: and he shall be there till I visit him, saith the Lord. But if you will fight against the Chaldeans, you shall have no success.
6And Jeremias said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying:
7Behold, Hanameel, the son of Sellum thy cousin, shall come to thee, saying: Buy thee my field which is in Anathoth, for it is thy right to buy it, being next akin.
8And Hanameel, my uncle's son came to me, according to the word of the Lord to the entry of the prison, and said me: Buy my field which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is thine, and thou art next of kin to possess it. And I understood this was the word of the Lord.
9And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters and ten pieces of silver.
10And I wrote it in a book and sealed it and took witnesses: and I weighed him the money in the balances.
11And I took the deed of the purchase that was sealed and the stipulations and the ratifications with the seals that were on the outside.
12And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neri the son of Maasias, in the sight of Hanameel my uncle's son, in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, and before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
13And I charged Baruch before them, saying:
14Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these writings, this deed of the purchase that is sealed up, and this deed that is open: and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
15For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
16And after I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying:
17Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, behold, thou hast made heaven and earth by thy great power and thy stretched-out arm: no word shall be hard to thee.
18Thou shewest mercy unto thousands and returnest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. O most mighty, great, and powerful: the Lord of hosts is thy name.
19Great in counsel and incomprehensible in thought: whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of Adam to render unto every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his devices.
20Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even until this day, and in Israel, and amongst men, and hast made thee a name as at this day.
21And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm and with great terror.
22And hast given them this land which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.
23And they came in and possessed it: but they obeyed not thy voice and they walked not in thy law. And they did not any of those things that thou didst command them to do: and all these evils are come upon them.
24Behold, works are built up against the city to take it: and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, by the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence. And what thou hast spoken is all come to pass, as thou thyself seest.
25And sayest thou to me, O Lord God: Buy a field for money and take witnesses, whereas the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans?
26And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
27Behold, I am the Lord the God of all flesh: Shall any thing be hard for me?
28Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it.
29And the Chaldeans that fight against this city shall come and set it on fire and burn it, with the houses upon whose roofs they offered sacrifice to Baal and poured out drink-offerings to strange gods, to provoke me to wrath.
30For the children of Israel and the children of Juda have continually done evil in my eyes from their youth: the children of Israel who even till now provoke me with the work of their hands, saith the Lord.
31For this city hath been to me a provocation and indignation from the day that they built it until this day in which it shall be taken out of my sight.
32Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Juda which they have done, provoking me to wrath, they and their kings, their princes, and their priests and their prophets, the men of Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
33And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces, when I taught them early in the morning and instructed them: and they would not hearken to receive instruction.
34And they have set their idols in the house in which my name is called upon, to defile it.
35And they have built the high places of Baal which are in the valley of the son of Ennom, to consecrate their sons and their daughters to Moloch: which I commanded them not, neither entered it into my heart that they should do this abomination and cause Juda to sin.
36And now, therefore, thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, to this city, whereof you say that it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword and by famine and by pestilence:
37Behold, I will gather them together out of all the lands to which I have cast them out in my anger and in my wrath and in my great indignation: and I will bring them again into this place and will cause them to dwell securely.
38And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
39And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me all days: and that it may be well with them and with their children after them.
40And I will make an everlasting covenant with them and will not cease to do them good: and I will give my fear in their heart, that they may not revolt from me.
41And I will rejoice over them when I shall do them good: and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart, and with all my soul.
42For thus saith the Lord: As I have brought upon this people all this great evil, so will I bring upon them all the good that I now speak to them.
43And fields shall be purchased in this land, whereof you say that it is desolate, because there remaineth neither man nor beast, and it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.
44Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be written and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken, in the land of Benjamin and round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Juda and in the cities on the mountains and in the cities of the plains and in the cities that are towards the south: for I will bring their captivity, saith the Lord.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.