Jeremiah
said, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it. So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to Yahweh’s word, and said to me, Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is 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 Yahweh’s word. I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Jeremiah 32:6-9
Jeremiah 32 [1.] The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. Now at that 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 king of Judah’s house. For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, and say, Yahweh says, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes;
Jeremiah 32 [5.] and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he shall be there until I visit him, says Yahweh: though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper? Jeremiah said, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it. So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to Yahweh’s word, and said to me, Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is 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 Yahweh’s word. I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Jeremiah 32 [10.] I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open; and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard. I commanded Baruch before them, saying, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days.
Meaning:
Jerusalem was under siege by the army of Babylon, and Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard. At this dark moment God told the prophet to do something that looked foolish: buy a field.
- “Buy my field that is in Anathoth”
Anathoth was Jeremiah’s home town, in the land of Benjamin, and it was almost certainly in enemy hands. Under the law of Moses, land was meant to stay within a family: “his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold” (Leviticus 25:25). God told Jeremiah beforehand that his cousin Hanamel would come with this request, and when it happened, Jeremiah knew “that this was Yahweh’s word.” He obeyed.
- “weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver”
Jeremiah paid in full and sealed the deed before witnesses. The meaning was then made clear: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land” (Jeremiah 32:15). The purchase was a pledge that the exile would not be the end, for God’s thoughts toward his people were “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
- A field and thirty pieces of silver
Matthew recalls this passage when the priests use Judas’s thirty pieces of silver to buy the potter’s field (Matthew 27:5-10). He names Jeremiah, combining this field bought with silver with Zechariah’s words about thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13).
The Significance of Jeremiah 32:6-9
- Faith acts on God’s promise
Jeremiah invested in a future he could not see. “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Cross-References:
Jeremiah 32:17: "there is nothing too hard for you," Jeremiah’s prayer after the purchase.
Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen." Faith that acts on God’s word.
Conclusion: In Jeremiah 32:6-9 the imprisoned prophet obeyed God and bought his cousin’s field in Anathoth for seventeen shekels of silver, a promise that God would restore his people. Matthew later recalled this field when the priests bought the potter’s field with Judas’s silver.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible