Jeremiah 32
32
Jeremiah Buys a Field
1 #
2 Kgs 25.1–7
The LORD spoke to me in the tenth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, which was also the eighteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. 2At that time the army of the king of Babylonia was attacking Jerusalem, and I was locked up in the courtyard of the royal palace. 3King Zedekiah had imprisoned me there and had accused me of announcing that the LORD had said, “I am going to let the king of Babylonia capture this city, 4and King Zedekiah will not escape. He will be handed over to the king of Babylonia; he will see him face to face and will speak to him in person. 5Zedekiah will be taken to Babylonia, and he will remain there until I deal with him. Even if he fights the Babylonians, he will not be successful. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
6The LORD told me 7that Hanamel, my uncle Shallum's son, would come to me with the request to buy his field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, because I was his nearest relative and had the right to buy it for myself. 8Then, just as the LORD had said, Hanamel came to me there in the courtyard and asked me to buy the field. So I knew that the LORD had really spoken to me. 9I bought the field from Hanamel and weighed out the money to him; the price came to seventeen pieces of silver. 10I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the money on scales. 11Then I took both copies of the deed of purchase — the sealed copy containing the contract and its conditions, and the open copy — 12and gave them to Baruch, the son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I gave them to him in the presence of Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase and of the people who were sitting in the courtyard. 13Before them all I said to Baruch, 14“The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, has ordered you to take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and the open copy, and to place them in a clay jar, so that they may be preserved for years to come. 15The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”
Jeremiah's Prayer
16After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch, I prayed, 17“Sovereign LORD, you made the earth and the sky by your great power and might; nothing is too difficult for you. 18You have shown constant love to thousands, but you also punish people for the sins of their parents. You are a great and powerful God; you are the LORD Almighty. 19You make wise plans and do mighty things; you see everything that people do, and you reward them according to their actions. 20Long ago, you performed miracles and wonders in Egypt, and you have continued to perform them to this day, both in Israel and among all the other nations, so that you are now known everywhere. 21By means of miracles and wonders that terrified our enemies, you used your power and might to bring your people Israel out of Egypt. 22You gave them this rich and fertile land, as you had promised their ancestors. 23But when they came into this land and took possession of it, they did not obey your commands or live according to your teaching; they did nothing that you had ordered them to do. And so you brought all this destruction on them.
24“The Babylonians have built siege mounds round the city to capture it, and they are attacking. War, starvation, and disease will make the city fall into their hands. You can see that all you have said has come true. 25Yet, Sovereign LORD, you are the one who ordered me to buy the field in the presence of witnesses, even though the city is about to be captured by the Babylonians.”
26Then the LORD said to me, 27“I am the LORD, the God of the whole human race. Nothing is too difficult for me. 28#2 Kgs 25.1–11; 2 Chr 36.17–21I am going to give this city over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army; they will capture it 29and set it on fire. They will burn it down, together with the houses where people have made me angry by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out wine offerings to other gods. 30From the very beginning of their history the people of Israel and the people of Judah have displeased me and made me angry by what they have done. 31The people of this city have made me angry and furious from the day it was built. I have decided to destroy it 32because of all the evil that has been done by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, together with their kings and leaders, their priests and prophets. 33They turned their backs on me; and though I kept on teaching them, they would not listen and learn. 34#2 Kgs 23.10; Jer 7.30–31; 19.1–6They even placed their disgusting idols in the Temple built for my worship, and they have defiled it. 35#Lev 18.21; 2 Kgs 23.10; Jer 7.31They have built altars to Baal in the Valley of Hinnom, to sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. I did not command them to do this, and it did not even enter my mind that they would do such a thing and make the people of Judah sin.”
A Promise of Hope
36The LORD, the God of Israel, said to me, “Jeremiah, the people are saying that war, starvation, and disease will make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylonia. Now listen to what else I have to say. 37I am going to gather the people from all the countries where I have scattered them in my anger and fury, and I am going to bring them back to this place and let them live here in safety. 38Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. 39I will give them a single purpose in life: to honour me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants. 40I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me. 41I will take pleasure in doing good things for them, and I will establish them permanently in this land.
42“Just as I have brought this disaster on these people, so I am going to give them all the good things that I have promised. 43The people are saying that this land will be like a desert where neither people nor animals live, and that it will be given over to the Babylonians. But fields will once again be bought in this land. 44People will buy them, and the deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed. This will take place in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages round Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, and in the towns in the hill country, in the foothills, and in southern Judah. I will restore the people to their land. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
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Jeremiah 32: GNBDK
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
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.