Jeremiah 32:1-15

Modern English Version

Jeremiah Buys a Field

32 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ² For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Judah.

³ For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy? You say: Thus says the Lord: I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it, ⁴ and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. ⁵ And he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he will be until I visit him, says the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.”

⁶ So Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁷ Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field that is in Anathoth. For the right of redemption is yours to buy it.”

⁸ So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord and said to me, “Please buy my field, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance and the redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself.”

Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. ⁹ I bought the field of Hanamel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels^[a] of silver. ¹⁰ I signed and sealed the deed, and summoned witnesses, and weighed the money from him in the balances. ¹¹ So I took the deed of purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open. ¹² And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison.

¹³ I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, ¹⁴ Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this sealed deed of purchase and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel that they may last many days. ¹⁵ For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.