Jeremiah 32
32
Jeremiah 32
Jeremiah Buys a Field During the Siege
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2#Neh 3.25; Jer 37.21; 39.14At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, 3#2 Kings 6.31, 32; Jer 26.8, 9; 34.2, 3where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him. Zedekiah had said, “Why do you prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord: I am going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; 4#Jer 38.18, 23; 39.5King Zedekiah of Judah shall not escape out of the hands of the Chaldeans but shall surely be given into the hands of the king of Babylon and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye, 5#Jer 21.4; 27.22; 34.4, 5; 39.7and he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I attend to him, says the Lord; though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed?”
6Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7#Lev 25.25; Ruth 4.4; Jer 1.1Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ ” 8Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
9 #
Gen 23.16; 24.22; Ex 21.32 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out the silver to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10#Ruth 4.1, 9I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the silver on scales. 11#Lk 2.27Then I took the sealed deed of purchase containing the terms and conditions and the open copy, 12#Jer 36.4; 51.59and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin#32.12 Gk Syr Vg: Heb my uncle Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15#Jer 33.12, 13; Zech 3.10For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”
Jeremiah Prays for Understanding
16After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: 17#2 Kings 19.15; Isa 40.26–28; Jer 1.6; 4.10“Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. 18#Ex 34.7; Jer 10.16; 20.11You show steadfast love to the thousandth generation#32.18 Or to thousands but repay the guilt of parents into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the Lord of hosts, 19#Isa 28.29; Jer 16.17; 17.10great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of mortals, rewarding all according to their ways and according to the fruit of their doings. 20#Ex 9.16; Dan 9.15You showed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and to this day in Israel and among all humankind and have made yourself a name that continues to this very day. 21#Ex 6.6; 1 Chr 17.21You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror, 22#Ex 3.8, 17; Jer 11.5and you gave them this land, which you swore to their ancestors to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, 23#Neh 9.26; Jer 2.7; 11.8; 26.4; 44.10; Dan 9.10–14and they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or follow your laws; of all you commanded them to do, they did nothing. Therefore you have made all these disasters come upon them. 24#Deut 4.26; Jer 33.4; Ezek 14.21; Zech 1.6See, the siege ramps have been cast up against the city to take it, and the city, faced with sword, famine, and pestilence, has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has happened, as you yourself can see. 25Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, ‘Buy the field for silver and get witnesses,’ though the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans.”
God’s Assurance of the People’s Return
26The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27#Num 16.22See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me? 28#Jer 34.2, 3Therefore, thus says the Lord: I am going to give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall take it. 29#Jer 19.13; 21.10; 37.8, 10; 52.13The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come, set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and libations have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 30#Jer 2.7; 22.21; 25.7For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; the people of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, says the Lord. 31#2 Kings 23.27; 24.3This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built until this day, so that I will remove it from my sight 32#Isa 1.4–6; Dan 9.8because of all the evil of the people of Israel and the people of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33#Jer 2.27; 35.15; Ezek 8.16They have turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I have taught them persistently, they would not listen and accept correction. 34#Jer 7.30, 31; Ezek 8.5, 6They set up their abominations in the house that bears my name and defiled it. 35#Lev 18.21; 1 Kings 11.33; Jer 7.31; 19.5They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter my mind that they should do this abomination, causing Judah to sin.
36Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, “It is being given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence”: 37#Deut 30.3; Jer 23.3, 6; Zech 14.11See, I am going to gather them from all the lands to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation; I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety. 38They shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39#Jer 24.7; Ezek 11.19, 20; 37.25I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for all time, for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me. 41#Deut 30.9; Am 9.15; Zeph 3.17I will rejoice in doing good to them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.
42 #
Jer 31.28; 33.14; Zech 8.14, 15 For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good fortune that I now promise them. 43Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying, “It is a desolation, without humans or animals; it has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans.” 44#Jer 17.26; 33.7, 11, 26Fields shall be bought for silver, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, of the hill country, of the Shephelah, and of the Negeb, for I will restore their fortunes, says the Lord.
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Jeremiah 32: NRSVUE
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New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.