This was another of Jeremiah's symbolic acts (cf. 16:1-4; 18:1-12; 19:1-2, 10-11; 27:1-28:17; 43:8-13; 51:59-64).
32:1 A message came to the prophet from the Lord about 587 B.C., the year before Jerusalem fell.
32:2 Jerusalem was then under siege by the Babylonians, and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the court of the guard somewhere in the palace complex. This appears to have been a guarded yard similar to a modern prison yard.422
32:3-5 King Zedekiah had imprisoned Jeremiah for preaching in the Lord's name that Yahweh was about to turn Jerusalem over to Nebuchadnezzar who would take possession of it. Zedekiah would not escape, Jeremiah had said, but would face Nebuchadnezzar who would take him captive to Babylon (cf. 2 Kings 25:4-7). There he would remain until the Lord visited him, evidently with death. Jeremiah had preached that fighting against the Chaldeans would be fruitless, which sounded like treason.
32:6-7 The Lord told Jeremiah that his cousin Hanamel would offer to sell him a field in Anathoth, Jeremiah's hometown, just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem.423Jeremiah had the right to buy it according to the laws of redemption (Lev. 25:25-31; cf. Ruth 4:1-12).
32:8 Sure enough, Hanamel visited his cousin in prison and made Jeremiah the offer confirming the Lord's message. Hanamel probably wanted to sell his property before he left the land as an exile. The handwriting was on the wall and he could read the signs of the times. To try to sell a piece of confiscated property to a relative in prison reflects insensitivity at bestand total contempt at worst. Perhaps Hanamel was one of those kinsmen that the Lord told Jeremiah would hate him (cf. 11:19-23; 12:6).
". . . was there ever a more insensitive prison-visitor?"424
This offer constituted a test of Jeremiah's faith in the promises of restoration that the Lord had given him and an opportunity to give witness to that faith. Anathoth was already in Babylonian hands when Jerusalem was under siege. Imagine being offered property to buy that you could not take possession of or had no hope of ever using!
32:9-10 Jeremiah bought the field for 17 shekels (about seven ounces) of silver. Since we do not know the size of the field or anything else about its condition, we cannot tell if this was a fair price. Jeremiah signed and sealed the deed with witnesses and exchanged the money with his cousin. This would have been viewed as a very foolish thing to do since the Babylonians had taken possession of all the land around Jerusalem by this time.
"Since the early, doubt-ridden days [15:18; 20:7] he has learnt, and still teaches the rest of us, to recognize the hidden hand of God in what befalls him, from whatever human quarter it may arise."425
32:11-12 Then Jeremiah gave the original purchase document and a copy of it to Baruch ("Blessed") in the sight of all the people who were present.426
32:13-15 Jeremiah instructed Baruch to store the documents in an earthenware jar, so they would last a long time.427The Lord had revealed to him that the Israelites would again buy and sell land in Judah. In spite of the imminent captivity, they would return to the land and resume life as usual eventually.
