Jeremiah 32
32
Jeremiah Buys a Field
1 #
2 K 25.1-7. The Lord spoke to me in the tenth year that Zedekiah#32.1 Zedekiah: See the note at 1.3. was king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year that Nebuchadnezzar#32.1 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. was king of Babylonia. 2At that time, the Babylonian army had surrounded Jerusalem, and I was in the prison at the courtyard of the palace guards. 3Zedekiah had ordered me to be held there because I told everyone that the Lord had said:
I am the Lord, and I am about to let the king of Babylonia conquer Jerusalem. 4King Zedekiah will be captured and taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who will speak with him face to face. 5Then Zedekiah will be led away to Babylonia, where he will stay until I am finished with him. So, if you people of Judah fight against the Babylonians, you will lose. I, the Lord, have spoken.
6Later, when I was in prison, the Lord said:
7Jeremiah, your cousin Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will visit you. He must sell his field near the town of Anathoth, and because you are his nearest relative, you have the right and the responsibility to buy it and keep it in the family.#32.7 you have the right … in the family: See Leviticus 25.25-32.
8Hanamel came, just as the Lord had promised. And he said, “Please buy my field near Anathoth in the territory of the Benjamin tribe. You have the right to buy it, and if you do, it will stay in our family.”
The Lord had told me to buy it 9from Hanamel, and so I did. The price was 17 pieces of silver, and I weighed out the full amount on a scale. 10-11I had two copies of the bill of sale written out: an official copy containing the details of our agreement and another copy, without the details. Some witnesses and I signed the official copy, which was folded and tied, before being sealed shut with hot wax.#32.10,11 signed the official copy, which was folded and tied, before being sealed shut with hot wax: The signing was actually done by pressing a carved clay stamp (called a “seal”) into the hot wax, leaving the design in the wax. Then I gave Hanamel the silver. 12And while he, the witnesses, and all the other Jews sitting in the courtyard were still watching, I gave both copies to Baruch son of Neriah.#32.12 Baruch son of Neriah: Hebrew “Baruch son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah.”
13-14I told Baruch that the Lord had said:
Take both copies of this bill of sale, one sealed shut and the other open, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. 15I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, and I promise you that people will once again buy and sell houses, farms, and vineyards in this country.
Jeremiah Questions the Lord
16Then I prayed:
17 Lord God, you stretched out your mighty arm and made the sky and the earth. You can do anything. 18You show kindness for a thousand generations,#32.18 for a thousand generations: Or “to thousands of people.” but you also punish people for the sins of their parents. You are the Lord All-Powerful. 19With great wisdom you make plans, and with your great power you do all the mighty things you planned. Nothing we do is hidden from your eyes, and you reward or punish us as we deserve.
20You are famous because you worked miracles in Egypt, and you are still working them in Israel and in the rest of the world as well. 21You terrified the Egyptians with your miracles, and you reached out your mighty arm and rescued your people Israel from Egypt. 22Then you gave Israel this land rich with milk and honey, just as you had promised our ancestors.
23But when our ancestors took over the land, they did not obey you. And now you have punished Israel with disaster. 24Jerusalem is under attack, and we suffer from hunger and disease. The Babylonians have already built dirt ramps up to the walls of our city, and you can see that Jerusalem will be captured just as you said.
25So why did you tell me to get some witnesses and buy a field with my silver, when Jerusalem is about to be captured by the Babylonians?
The Lord Explains about the Field
26The Lord explained:
27Jeremiah, I am the Lord God. I rule the world, and I can do anything!
28 #
2 K 25.1-11; 2 Ch 36.17-21. It is true that I am going to let King Nebuchadnezzar#32.28 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. of Babylonia capture Jerusalem. 29The Babylonian army is already attacking, and they will capture the city and set it on fire. The people of Jerusalem have made me angry by going up to the flat roofs of their houses and burning incense to Baal and offering wine sacrifices to other gods. Now these houses will be burned to the ground!
30-33The kings and the officials, the priests and the prophets, and everyone else in Israel and Judah have turned from me and made me angry by worshiping idols. Again and again I have tried to teach my people to obey me, but they refuse to be corrected.
I am going to get rid of Jerusalem, because its people have done nothing but evil. 34#2 K 23.10; Jr 7.30,31; 19.1-6. They have set up repulsive idols in my temple, and now it isn't a fit place to worship me. 35#2 K 23.10; Jr 7.31; Lv 18.21. And they led Judah into sin by building places to worship Baal in Hinnom Valley, where they also sacrificed their sons and daughters to the god Molech. I have never even imagined they would commit such disgusting sins.
36Jeremiah, what you said is true. The people of Jerusalem are suffering from hunger and disease, and so the king of Babylonia will be able to capture Jerusalem.
37I am angry with the people of Jerusalem, and I will scatter them in foreign countries. But someday I will bring them back here and let them live in safety. 38They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39-41I will make their thoughts and desires pure. Then they will realize that, for their own good and the good of their children, they must worship only me. They will even be afraid to turn away from me. I will make an agreement with them that will never end, and I won't ever stop doing good things for them. With all my heart I promise that they will be planted in this land once again. 42Even though I have brought disaster on the people, I will someday do all these good things for them.
43Jeremiah, when you bought the field, you showed that fields will someday be bought and sold again. You say that this land has been conquered by the Babylonians and has become a desert, emptied of people and animals. 44But someday, people will again spend their silver to buy fields everywhere—in the territory of Benjamin, the region around Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and in the hill country, the foothills to the west, and the Southern Desert. Buyers and sellers and witnesses will sign and seal the bills of sale for the fields. It will happen, because I will give this land back to my people. I, the Lord, have spoken.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
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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