Jeremiah 32

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which wasthe eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

² The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah wasconfined in the Court of the Guard in the king of Judah's palace,

³ where Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, 'Why do you keep prophesying like this,"Yahweh says this: I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he wil capture it;

⁴ and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the clutches of the Chaldaeans, but will certainly behanded over to the king of Babylon, speak to him personally and see him face to face.

⁵ He wil take Zedekiah away to Babylon and there he wil stay (until I attend to him, Yahweh declares. Ifyou fight the Chaldaeans you will not succeed!)" '

⁶ Jeremiah said, 'The word of Yahweh has been addressed to me as fol ows,

⁷ "Look, Hanamel the son of your uncle Shal um wil come to you and say: Buy my field at Anathoth, foryou have the right of redemption to purchase it."

⁸ And, as Yahweh had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me, in the Court of the Guard and said, "Buymy field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, for you have the right of inheritance and right of redemption; buyit." I knew then that this was Yahweh's order.

⁹ Accordingly, I bought the field from my cousin Hanamel of Anathoth and weighed him out the money:seventeen silver shekels.

¹⁰ I drew up the deeds and sealed it, cal ed in witnesses and weighed out the money on the scales.

¹¹ I then took both the sealed deed of purchase (with its stipulations and clauses) and its open copy

¹² and handed over the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence ofmy cousin Hanamel, of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and of al the Judaeans who thenhappened to be in the Court of the Guard.

¹³ In their presence I gave Baruch this order,

¹⁴ "Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Take these deeds, the sealed deed of purchase and itsopen copy, and put them in an earthenware pot, so that they may be preserved for a long time.

¹⁵ For Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Houses, fields and vineyards wil again be bought inthis country."

¹⁶ 'After I had entrusted the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh as fol ows,

¹⁷ "Ah, Lord Yahweh, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.To you nothing is impossible.

¹⁸ You show faithful love to thousands but repay the fathers' guilt in full to their children after them. Greatand mighty God, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth,

¹⁹ great in purpose, mighty in deed, whose eyes are open on al human ways, rewarding every individualas that person's ways and actions deserve!

²⁰ You performed signs and wonders in Egypt, as you stil do in Israel and among humanity today. Youhave won the name for yourself which is yours today.

²¹ You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with mighty hand andoutstretched arm and fearsome terror.

²² Then you gave them this country which you had promised on oath to their ancestors, a countryflowing with milk and honey.

²³ They then entered it, taking possession of it, but they would not listen to your voice nor follow yourLaw: they would do nothing you ordered them to do; and so you made this total disaster befall them.

²⁴ Look! The earthworks are already in place to take the city and, by means of sword, famine andplague, the city is now within the clutches of the Chaldaeans attacking it. What you said has now come true, asyou see.

²⁵ Yet you yourself, Lord Yahweh, told me: Buy the field, pay for it, have it witnessed although the city isalready in the Chaldaeans' clutches." '

²⁶ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as fol ows,

²⁷ 'Look, I am Yahweh, God of al humanity. Is anything impossible to me?

²⁸ 'So, Yahweh says this, "I shal hand this city over to the Chaldaeans and to Nebuchadnezzar king ofBabylon, and he wil capture it;

²⁹ the Chaldaeans attacking this city wil enter it, fire it and burn it to the ground, with the houses onwhose roofs incense has been offered to Baal and libations poured to other gods, to provoke my anger.

³⁰ For the people of Israel and Judah alike have done nothing but what displeases me since they wereyoung. (The people of Israel in fact have done nothing but provoke my anger by their actions, Yahweh declares.)

³¹ Yes, from the day when this city was built until today, it has been such cause of anger and wrath tome that I mean to remove it from my sight,

³² on account of al the wickedness the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done to provokemy anger; they, their kings, their chief men, their priests, their prophets, the people of Judah and the inhabitantsof Jerusalem.

³³ They turned to me their backs, never their faces; and though I taught them so urgently, so untiringly,they would not listen and accept correction.

³⁴ Instead, they set up their Horrors in the Temple that bears my name to defile it,

³⁵ and built the high places of Baal in the Val ey of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters alivein honour of Molech: a thing I have never ordered, that had never entered my thoughts -- that they would causeJudah to sin by anything so loathsome!

³⁶ "So now, this is what Yahweh, God of Israel, says about this city of which you now say: By means ofsword, famine and plague, it is already within the king of Babylon's clutches:

³⁷ Look, I shall gather them in from al the countries where I have driven them in my anger, my fury andgreat wrath. I shal bring them back to this place and make them live in safety.

³⁸ Then they will be my people, and I shall be their God.

³⁹ I shal give them singleness of heart and singleness of conduct so that they wil always fear me, fortheir own good and that of their children after them.

⁴⁰ I shal make an everlasting covenant with them, never to cease in my efforts for their welfare, and Ishall put respect for me in their hearts, so that they wil never turn away from me again.

⁴¹ My joy wil lie in them and in doing them good, and I shal plant them firmly in this country, with al myheart and soul.

⁴² For Yahweh says this: Just as I have brought this complete and total disaster on this people, so I shalbring them al the good things I have promised them.

⁴³ Fields wil again be bought in this country of which you now say: It is a wasteland without human oranimal, already in the clutches of the Chaldaeans.

⁴⁴ People wil buy fields, pay money, draw up deeds, seal them and have them witnessed in the territoryof Benjamin, in the districts round Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, of the highlands, of the lowlands and of theNegeb. For I shal bring back their captives, Yahweh declares." '