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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Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 32
32
1The word that came to Yirmeyahu from יהוה in the tenth year of Tsiḏqiyahu sovereign of Yehuḏah, which was the eighteenth year of Neḇuḵaḏretstsar.
2Now at that time the army of the sovereign of Baḇel besieged Yerushalayim, and Yirmeyahu the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the sovereign of Yehuḏah.
3For Tsiḏqiyahu sovereign of Yehuḏah had shut him up, saying, “Why are you prophesying, saying, ‘Thus said יהוה, “See, I am giving this city into the hand of the sovereign of Baḇel, and he shall take it,
4and Tsiḏqiyahu sovereign of Yehuḏah shall not escape from the hand of the Kasdim, but certainly be given into the hand of the sovereign of Baḇel, and shall speak with him face to face, and see him eye to eye,
5and he shall lead Tsiḏqiyahu to Baḇel, and be there until I visit him,” declares יהוה, “though you fight with the Kasdim, you shall not prosper” ’?”
6And Yirmeyahu said, “The word of יהוה came to me, saying,
7See, Ḥaname’ĕl son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’
8“So Ḥaname’ĕl my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of יהוה, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Binyamin, for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ And I knew that this was the word of יהוה.
9“And I bought the field which was at Anathoth from Ḥaname’ĕl, my uncle’s son, and weighed out to him the silver, seventeen sheqels of silver.
10“And I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the silver in the scales.
11“Then I took the deed of purchase – that which was sealed according to the command and law, and that which was open –
12and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruḵ son of Nĕriyah, son of Maḥsĕyah, in the presence of Ḥaname’ĕl my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Yehuḏim who sat in the court of the guard.
13“And I commanded Baruḵ before their eyes, saying,
14Thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “Take these deeds, both this deed of purchase which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, so that they remain many days.”
15For thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” ’
16“And after I had given the deed of purchase to Baruḵ son of Nĕriyah, I prayed to יהוה, saying,
17Ah, Master יהוה! See, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is no matter too hard for You,
18who show loving-commitment to thousands, and repay the crookedness of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them – the Great, the Mighty Ěl, יהוה of hosts is His Name,
19great in counsel and mighty in work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.
20For You have set signs and wonders in the land of Mitsrayim, to this day, and in Yisra’ĕl and among other men. And You have made Yourself a Name, as it is this day.
21And You have brought Your people Yisra’ĕl out of the land of Mitsrayim with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great fearsome deeds.
22And You gave them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
23And they came in and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice nor did they walk in Your Torah. They did not do all that You commanded them to do, so You brought all this evil upon them.
24See the siege mounds! They have come to the city to take it. And the city has been given into the hand of the Kasdim who fight against it, because of the sword and the scarcity of food and the pestilence. And what You have spoken has come about, and look, You see it!
25Yet You, O Master יהוה, have said to me, “Buy the field for silver, and take witnesses”! although the city has been given into the hand of the Kasdim.’ ”
26Then the word of יהוה came to Yirmeyahu, saying,
27“See, I am יהוה, the Elohim of all flesh. Is there any matter too hard for Me?”
28Therefore thus said יהוה, “See, I am giving this city into the hand of the Kasdim, into the hand of Neḇuḵaḏretstsar sovereign of Baḇel, and he shall take it.
29“And the Kasdim who fight against this city shall come and set fire to this city and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs they burned incense to Ba‛al and poured out drink offerings to other mighty ones, to provoke Me.
30“For the children of Yisra’ĕl and the children of Yehuḏah have done only evil before Me, from their youth. For the children of Yisra’ĕl have only provoked Me with the work of their hands,” declares יהוה.
31“For this city has been a cause for My displeasure and My wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day that I should remove it from before My face,
32because of all the evil of the children of Yisra’ĕl and the children of Yehuḏah, which they have done to provoke Me – they, their sovereigns, their heads, their priests, their prophets, and the men of Yehuḏah, and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
33“And they have turned their back to Me, and not their face – though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, they did not listen to receive instruction.
34“And they set their abominations in the house which is called by My Name, to defile it.
35“And they built the high places of Ba‛al which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and their daughters to Moleḵ, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart, that they should do this abomination, to make Yehuḏah sin.
36“And now, thus said יהוה, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It shall be given into the hand of the sovereign of Baḇel by the sword, and by scarcity of food, and by pestilence’:
37See, I am gathering them out of all the lands where I have driven them in My displeasure, and in My wrath, and in great rage. And I shall bring them back to this place, and shall let them dwell in safety.
38And they shall be My people, and I shall be their Elohim.
39And I shall give them one heart and one way, to fear Me all the days, for the good of them and of their children after them.
40And I shall make an everlasting covenant with them, that I do not turn back from doing good to them. And I shall put My fear in their hearts so as not to turn aside from Me.
41And I shall rejoice over them to do good to them, and shall plant them in this land in truth, with all My heart and with all My being.’
42“For thus said יהוה, ‘As I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I am bringing on them all the good that I am speaking to them.
43And fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying, “It is a wasteland, without man or beast. It has been given into the hand of the Kasdim.”
44Fields shall be bought for silver, and deeds signed and sealed, and witnesses be called, in the land of Binyamin, and in the places around Yerushalayim, and in the cities of Yehuḏah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the low country, and in the cities of the South. For I shall turn back their captivity,’ declares יהוה.”
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