Beginning

Why Jeremiah Bought Property

32 The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ² Now at the time the king of Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah. ³ For King Zedekiah of Judah had shut him up, saying: “Why do you prophesy and say, thus says Adonai: ‘I will soon give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; ⁴ and King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him mouth to mouth and his eyes will behold his eyes; ⁵ and he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there will he remain until I take note of him,’ says Adonai—though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not succeed?”

⁶ So Jeremiah said: “The word of Adonai came to me, saying: ⁷ ‘Hanamel, son of Shallum your uncle, will soon come to you saying: ‘Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.’” ⁸ So my uncle’s son Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard as was the word of Adonai, and said to me: “Buy my field, please, which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of Adonai. ⁹ So I bought the field that was in Anathoth from the son of my uncle Hanamel, and weighed him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰ I signed and sealed the deed, called in witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. ¹¹ Then I took the purchase deed, both the sealed copy, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy, ¹² and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my uncle’s son Hanamel and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the purchase deed, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the guard. ¹³ Then I charged Baruch before them, saying, ¹⁴ thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds—this purchase deed, both the sealed copy and the open copy—and put them in a clay jar, so they may last many days.” ¹⁵ For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards will yet again be bought in this land.”

¹⁶ After I had given the purchase deed to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to Adonai, saying: ¹⁷ “Ah, my Lord Adonai! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm—nothing is too hard for You! ^{[a] 18} You are the One doing mercy to thousands, but repaying the iniquity of the fathers into the lap of their children after them. Great, mighty God, Adonai-Tzva’ot is His Name! ¹⁹ Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. ^{[b] 20} You set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day in Israel and among mankind, and made Yourself a Name, as to this day. ²¹ You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. ²² You gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ They came in and possessed it. But they did not obey your voice nor walk in your Torah. They have done nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you caused all this evil to fall on them. ²⁴ Look, the siege ramps have just come up to the city to take it. The city has been handed over to the Chaldeans fighting against it, because of the sword, the famine and the pestilence. What You have spoken has happened. Here it is, You see it. ²⁵ Yet You said to me, my Lord Adonai: ‘Buy for yourself the field for money and call in witnesses’—even as the city is handed over to the Chaldeans.”

²⁶ Then came the word of Adonai to Jeremiah, saying: ²⁷ “Behold, I am Adonai, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?” ²⁸ Therefore thus says Adonai: “I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. ²⁹ Then the Chaldeans fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses—where they burned incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink-offerings to other gods, to provoke Me. ³⁰ For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in My sight from their youth; indeed, the children of Israel have done nothing but provoke Me with the work of their hands,” declares Adonai.

³¹ “Indeed this city has caused My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it up to this day,^[c] so that I will remove it from before My face, ³² because of all the evil the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done to provoke Me—they, their kings, their princes, their kohanim, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

³³ “They have turned their back to Me and not their face. Though I taught them early and often, they have not listened to receive instruction. ³⁴ Instead they set up their abominations in the House where My Name is called, to defile it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to make their sons and their daughters pass through fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor did it enter My mind that they would do this loathsome thing, causing Judah to sin.”

³⁶ Now therefore thus says Adonai, the God of Israel, concerning this city, about which you say, “It is handed over to the king of Babylon by the sword, famine, and pestilence.

³⁷ “See, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in My anger, My fury, and great wrath, and I will bring them back to this place and cause them to dwell securely. ³⁸ They will be My people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ I will give them one heart^[d] and one way, so they may fear Me forever; for their good and for their children after them.

⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good for them. I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will not depart from Me.

⁴¹ “Yes, I will delight in doing good for them, and with all My heart and all My soul I will in truth plant them in this land.”

⁴² For thus says Adonai: “Just as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. ⁴³ So fields will be bought in this land, about which you are saying: ‘It will be a desolation, without man or beast; it is handed over to the Chaldeans.’ ⁴⁴ Men will buy fields for money and sign and seal the deeds and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the areas around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, in the towns of the hill-country, in the towns of the foothills, and in the cities of the South—because I will bring them back from exile.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

The Secret of Redemption

33 Then the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, saying:

⁴ For thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “Concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are torn down against the siege ramps and against the sword, ⁵ they are coming to fight with the Chaldeans, but they are about to fill them with the dead bodies of the people whom I will slay in My anger and in My fury. I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness.

⁶ “Indeed, I will bring it health and healing, and I will surely heal them. I will reveal to them an abundance of shalom and truth. ⁷ I will restore Judah from exile and Israel from exile, and will rebuild them, as in former times. ⁸ I will also cleanse them from all their iniquity^[f] in which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their wrongs in which they have sinned against Me and in which they have rebelled against Me.

⁹ “Then this city will be to Me for a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth, which will hear all the good that I do for them, so they will fear and tremble because of all the good and for all the shalom that I do for it.”

Voice of the Bridegroom

¹⁰ Thus says Adonai: “Yet again in this place—which you are saying is a waste without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the desolate, without man, without inhabitant and without beast—there will be heard ¹¹ the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them who say:

as they bring offerings of thanksgiving into the House of Adonai. For I will restore the land from the exile as it was at first,” declares Adonai.

¹² Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Yet again will there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a pasture of shepherds making their flocks lie down. ¹³ In the towns of the hill country, in the towns of the foothills, in the towns of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, will the flocks again pass under the hands of one who counts them,” declares Adonai.

Righteous Branch of David

¹⁷ For thus says Adonai: “For David, there will not be cut off a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel, ¹⁸ nor will the Levitical kohanim ever lack a man before Me to offer burnt offering, to burn grain offerings and to make sacrifices continually.”

¹⁹ And the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁰ thus says Adonai: “If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night would not be at in their appointed time, ²¹ only then may My covenant be broken with My servant David, that he would not have a son to reign on his throne, and the Levitical kohanim would not be My ministers. ²² As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David My servant, and the Levites who minister to Me.”

²³ The word of Adonai came to Jeremiah, saying: ²⁴ “Have you not noticed what this people have spoken, saying: ‘The two families which Adonai did choose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people—no longer a nation before them.” ²⁵ Thus says Adonai: “If I have not made My covenant of day and night firm, and the fixed patterns ordering the heavens and earth, ²⁶ only then would I reject the offspring of Jacob,^[g] and of My servant David so that I would not take from his offspring rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from their exile, and have compassion on them.”

Warning to Zedekiah

34 The word which came to Jeremiah from Adonai, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion and all the peoples were warring against Jerusalem and its towns, saying, ² thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “Go, speak to King Zedekiah of Judah and tell him, thus says Adonai: ‘I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire, ³ and you will not escape out of his hand, but will surely be captured and given into his hand. Your eyes will behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon.”

⁴ Yet hear the word of Adonai, O Zedekiah king of Judah, thus says Adonai concerning you: “You will not die by the sword; ⁵ you will die in peace. As there were burning ceremonies for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you, and they will lament for you: ‘Oy, lord!’ For it is a word I have spoken,” declares Adonai.

Covenant Breaking With Slaves

⁶ Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke all these words to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem, ⁷ when the army of the king of Babylon was warring against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left—against Lachish and against Azekah, for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities. ⁸ The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them, ⁹ so that everyone should let his manservant and his maidservant—Hebrew man or Hebrew woman—go free, so that no one should make a slave of a Jew, his brother. ¹⁰ So all the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone would free his manservant and his maidservant and not make them slaves any more—they obeyed, and freed them. ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and made the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, return, and brought them back into subjection as servants and as handmaids.”

¹² So the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying, ¹³ thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying: ¹⁴ ‘At the end of seven years you are to set free every man his brother that is a Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you are let him go free from you.’ But your fathers did not obey Me, nor inclined their ear. ¹⁵ Now you had repented, and had done that which is right in My eyes, by proclaiming liberty everyone to his neighbor. You even had made a covenant before Me in the House where My Name is called. ¹⁶ But you turned around and profaned My Name, and made everyone his servant and his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their will, return, and you brought them back into subjection, to be your servants and handmaids.”

¹⁷ Therefore thus says Adonai: “You have not obeyed Me, to proclaim liberty, everyone to his brother and everyone to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim for you a liberty,” declares Adonai, “to the sword, to plague and to famine! So I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts ¹⁹ —the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the officers, the kohanim, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf— ²⁰ I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them who seek their life, and their dead bodies will be for food to the birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth. ²¹ King Zedekiah of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, who were withdrawing from you. ²² Indeed, I will command,” declares Adonai, “and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a wasteland, with no one living.”