What does Jeremias Chapter 32 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Kinship purchase retains distinct payment denominations and witnesses. Preserved deeds precede a prayer questioning purchase during siege. The answer joins announced destruction with covenant and future purchases.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 32 dates the word to Sedecias's tenth and Nabuchodonosor's eighteenth year during siege and imprisonment in the king's prison court. Sedecias objects to predicted capture, face-to-face speech, Babylon until visitation and unsuccessful fighting. Hanameel's foretold arrival offers the Anathoth field in Benjamin by kinship right. Jeremias recognizes the word and buys for seven staters and ten pieces of silver, weighing, writing, sealing and witnessing. The deed, stipulations and outside ratifications pass to Baruch son of Neri son of Maasias before kin, witnesses and Jews. Sealed and open deeds go in an earthen vessel for many days, because houses, fields and vineyards will again be possessed.

After delivery Jeremias prays to the creator, for whom no word is hard, who shows mercy to thousands and returns fathers' iniquity to children. Incomprehensible thought and seen human ways accompany repayment. Signs in Egypt, Israel and among men, Exodus terror and milk-and-honey land contrast with unheard commands. Siege works, sword, famine and pestilence prompt his purchase question; no narrated view from the prison window is supplied.

The Lord answers as God of all flesh, promises city capture and fire on houses with Baal roof-sacrifices and strange-god libations. Continual evil, leaders' and inhabitants' sins, unheard instruction, temple idols and Moloch consecrations in Ennom's valley explain wrath. Gathering, secure dwelling, one heart and way, fear for descendants' good and everlasting covenant precede wholehearted planting and promised good matching earlier evil. Future field sales, deeds, seals and witnesses span Benjamin, Jerusalem, Juda, mountains, plains and south. This commanded purchase is not generalized as financial advice or investment certainty.

The story inside

Opening: Kinship purchase retains distinct payment denominations and witnesses. Development: Preserved deeds precede a prayer questioning purchase during siege. Conclusion: The answer joins announced destruction with covenant and future purchases.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Kinship purchase retains distinct payment denominations and witnesses.
2
Preserved deeds precede a prayer questioning purchase during siege.
3
The answer joins announced destruction with covenant and future purchases.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 87371–87383
32:7. Behold, Hanameel the son of Sellum thy cousin shall come to thee, saying: Buy thee my field, which is in Anathoth, for it is thy right to buy it, being next akin. 32:8. And Hanameel my uncle’s son came to me, according to the word of the Lord, to the entry of the prison, and said to me: Buy my field, which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and thou art next of kin to possess it. And I understood that this was the word of the Lord. 32:9. And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters, and ten pieces of silver.
Lines 87399–87405
32:14. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take these writings, this deed of the purchase that is sealed up, and this deed that is open: and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. 32:15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Houses, and fields, and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
Lines 87410–87412
32:17. Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, behold thou hast made heaven and earth by thy great power, and thy stretched out arm: no word shall be hard to thee:
Lines 87450–87455
32:27. Behold I am the Lord the God of all flesh: shall any thing be hard for me? 32:28. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it.
Lines 87493–87510
32:37. Behold I will gather them together out of all the lands to which I have cast them out in my anger, and in my wrath, and in my great indignation: and I will bring them again into this place, and will cause them to dwell securely. 32:38. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 32:39. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me all days: and that it may be well with them, and with their children after them. 32:40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and will not cease to do them good: and I will give my fear in their heart, that they may not revolt from me. 32:41. And I will rejoice over them, when I shall do them good: and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart, and with all my soul.
Lines 87520–87525
32:44. Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be written, and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken, in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Juda, and in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities of the plains, and in the cities that are towards the south: for I will bring back their captivity, saith the Lord.