Jeremiah 32

¹ The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

² The army of the king of Babylon was at that time besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined to the Court of the Guard in the royal palace of Judah,

³ where Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him. ‘Why’ he had asked ‘do you make a prophecy like this, “Yahweh says this: I am now going to deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, for him to capture it;

⁴ and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the power of the Chaldaeans, but will inevitably be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, speak to him personally and see him face to face.

⁵ He will take Zedekiah to Babylon and he will stay there (until I visit him – it is Yahweh who speaks. If you fight the Chaldaeans you will not succeed!)”?’

⁶ Jeremiah said, ‘The word of Yahweh has been addressed to me as follows,

⁷ “Look, Hanamel the son of your uncle Shallum will come to you and say: Buy my field at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption[*a] “to purchase it”.

⁸ And, as Yahweh had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me, in the Court of the Guard. He said to me, “Buy my field at Anathoth, for you have the right of inheritance and redemption; buy it”. I knew then that this was Yahweh’s order.

⁹ Accordingly, I bought the field from my cousin Hanamel of Anathoth and paid him the price: seventeen silver shekels.

¹⁰ I drew up the deed and sealed it, called in witnesses and weighed out the money on the scales.

¹¹ I then took both the sealed deed of purchase and its open copy, in accordance with the requirements of the law,

¹² and handed over the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and of all the Jews who then happened to be in the Court of the Guard.

¹³ In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions:

¹⁴ Take these deeds, the sealed deed of purchase and its open copy, and put them in an earthenware pot, so that they may be preserved for a long time.

¹⁵ For Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, “People will buy fields and vineyards in this land again”.

¹⁶ ‘After I had entrusted the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed thus to Yahweh:

¹⁷ Ah, Lord Yahweh, you have made the heavens and the earth with your great power and outstretched arm. To you nothing is impossible.

¹⁸ You show kindness to thousands but repay the fathers’ guilt in full to their children after them. Great and mighty God, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth!

¹⁹ Great in purpose, mighty in execution, whose eyes are open on all the ways of men, rewarding each man as his ways and the results of his actions deserve!

²⁰ You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and do the same today, in Israel and among mankind. You have won the name that is yours today.

²¹ You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with mighty hand and outstretched arm and fearsome terror;

²² then you gave them this land which you promised on oath to their ancestors, a land where milk and honey flow;

²³ and in due course they entered it and took possession. But they would not listen to your voice or follow your Law: they would do nothing you ordered them to do; and so you made all these disasters happen to them.

²⁴ See how the earthworks grow nearer to the city for the assault! Sword, famine, and plague will deliver the city into the hands of the attacking Chaldaeans. What you have said is now fulfilled, as you see.

²⁵ Yet you yourself, Lord Yahweh, told me, “Buy the field with money in front of witnesses” – and even now the city is falling into the hands of the Chaldaeans!

²⁶ ‘The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

²⁷ “See, I am Yahweh, the God of all mankind: is anything impossible to me?

²⁸ “Therefore – Yahweh says this: I am now putting this city into the power of the Chaldaeans, into the power of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will capture it;

²⁹ the Chaldaeans attacking this city will come and set fire to it; they will burn the houses on the roofs of which incense was offered to Baal and libations were poured to alien gods, to provoke me.

³⁰ For the sons of Israel and of Judah have done nothing but displease me from their youth up (the sons of Israel in fact have done nothing but provoke me by their actions – it is Yahweh who speaks).

³¹ Yes, from the day when it was built until today, this city has been such cause of anger and of wrath to me that I mean to remove it from my sight,

³² because of all the wickedness the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have committed to provoke me: they, their kings, their nobles, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.

³³ They turned their backs to me, never their faces; and though I taught them so urgently, so persistently, they would not listen and learn the lesson.

³⁴ They have put their abominations in the Temple that bears my name to defile it.

³⁵ They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, there to make their sons and daughters pass through fire in honour of Molech – something I never ordered, for it never entered my thoughts that they would do such detestable things – and so they have led Judah into sin.

³⁶ “But now, and for the same reason, this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says about this city of which you say: Sword, famine and plague will deliver it into the hands of the king of Babylon:

³⁷ I mean to gather them from all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, my fury and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and make them live in safety.

³⁸ Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

³⁹ I will give them a different heart and different behaviour so that they will always fear me, for the good of themselves and their children after them.

⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them; I will not cease in my efforts for their good, and I will put respect for me into their hearts, so that they turn from me no more.

⁴¹ lt will be my pleasure to bring about their good, and I will plant them firmly in this land, with all my heart and soul.

⁴² For Yahweh says this: As I have brought this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring them all the good I promise them.

⁴³ People will buy fields in this land of which you say: It is a wasteland without man or beast, it is given over into the power of the Chaldaeans.

⁴⁴ People will buy fields, pay money, draw up deeds and seal them, and witness them in the land of Benjamin, in the districts round Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, of the highlands, of the Lowlands and of the Negeb. For I am going to restore their fortunes – it is Yahweh who speaks.”‘