Jeremiahchapter 32
44 verses · BSBJeremiah book hub →
Speaks with:Jeremiah 32×16Jeremiah 33×4Jeremiah 7×4Jeremiah 23×3Jeremiah 24×3Jeremiah 39×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Jerusalem is under siege and Jeremiah is shut in the court of the guard for preaching surrender, when his cousin Hanamel arrives to sell him a field at Anathoth. He weighs out seventeen shekels of silver, seals the deed before witnesses and gives the sealed and open copies to Baruch for an earthen vessel, to last many days: because 'houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.' Then he prays: 'thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power… there is nothing too hard for thee' (32:17). God answers the prayer with its own question ('is there anything too hard for me?') and promises an everlasting covenant, one heart and one way.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–15 Buying a Field at Anathoth While the Siege Mounds Rise
- B. 16–25 Ah, Lord GOD, There Is Nothing Too Hard for Thee
- C. 26–35 Behold, I Am the God of All Flesh
- D. 36–44 One Heart and One Way: Fields Bought Again in This Land
The outline
A.Buying a Field at Anathoth While the Siege Mounds Risevv. 1 to 15
Read vv. 1 to 15 →B.Ah, Lord GOD, There Is Nothing Too Hard for Theevv. 16 to 25
Read vv. 16 to 25 →C.Behold, I Am the God of All Fleshvv. 26 to 35
Read vv. 26 to 35 →D.One Heart and One Way: Fields Bought Again in This Landvv. 36 to 44
Read vv. 36 to 44 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 32The history
The transaction is the message, and it is done by the book. Israelite law gave the nearest relative the first right to buy family land so it stayed in the clan, and Hanamel comes to his cousin Jeremiah with exactly that offer. Anathoth at this moment is behind Babylonian lines. The field is worthless.
Everything about the sale is recorded because it had to be. Seventeen shekels of silver are weighed out on scales — there were no coins yet in that world, so payment meant weighing metal against stone weights, many of which have been dug up in Jerusalem inscribed with their values.
Then the paperwork. Two documents are made: a sealed copy and an open copy. That is real practice — the deed was written, the sheet rolled, tied with cord, and blobs of clay pressed over the cord and stamped with the parties' seals, with a second unsealed copy for consultation. Thousands of those clay seal blobs survive; the sealed original could only be opened by breaking them, in front of witnesses, if the open copy was ever disputed.
The deeds are given to Baruch and put in an earthenware jar so they will last a long time. Storing documents in sealed pottery is precisely how the Dead Sea Scrolls survived two thousand years in the caves above the same valley.
What it meant to them
The first witnesses had just watched a condemned prophet spend real silver on land held by the enemy, and file the deed for long-term storage. He had been telling them the city would fall. Now he was betting his savings that houses and fields and vineyards would be bought again in this land.
His prayer afterwards is honest about the strangeness of it — he asks God outright why he was told to buy a field while the siege ramps are going up. The answer is the sentence the whole chapter exists for: I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 32. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.