⁶ Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: ⁷ Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth,^(A) because as nearest relative it is your right and duty^(B) to buy it.’

⁸ “Then, just as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field^(C) at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.’

“I knew that this was the word of the Lord; ⁹ so I bought the field^(D) at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels^[a] of silver.^{(E) 10} I signed and sealed the deed,^(F) had it witnessed,^(G) and weighed out the silver on the scales.

19 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter.^(A) Take along some of the elders^(B) of the people and of the priests ² and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom,^(C) near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, ³ and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings^(D) of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster^(E) on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.^{(F) 4} For they have forsaken^(G) me and made this a place of foreign gods^(H); they have burned incense^(I) in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.^(J)

¹⁰ “Then break the jar^(A) while those who go with you are watching, ¹¹ and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash^(B) this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury^(C) the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.