Commentary - Jeremiah 32:1-15

Bird's-eye view

In this remarkable chapter, we are presented with one of the most powerful prophetic sign-acts in all of Scripture. The historical situation is as bleak as it gets: the Babylonian army is surrounding Jerusalem, the city's fall is imminent, and Jeremiah, the prophet of God, is in jail for speaking the truth. It is in this context of absolute political and military collapse that God commands him to do something that appears, on the surface, to be financially insane. He is to purchase a field. This act is a concrete, tangible sermon, a down payment on hope. God is demonstrating to His people that His judgment, though severe and certain, is not His final word. His covenant promises of restoration are just as certain, and He wants His prophet to put his money where his mouth is. This is not a denial of the present disaster but a profound statement of faith in God's sovereign power to bring life out of death and to restore His people to their land according to His unbreakable word.

The entire transaction is carried out with meticulous legal detail, underscoring the certainty of the promise it represents. God's promises are not vague hopes; they are as legally binding as a sealed property deed. The contrast is stark: King Zedekiah imprisons the truth-teller in a desperate attempt to silence reality, while Jeremiah, from his prison cell, invests in a future that only God can see. This chapter is a master class in the nature of biblical hope, which is not optimism in the face of bad circumstances, but obedience to God's word in the face of impossible circumstances.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

Jeremiah 32 comes at the climax of the prophet's ministry of judgment. For decades, he has been warning Judah of the coming Babylonian invasion as God's covenant lawsuit against their idolatry and rebellion. By this point, his prophecies are being fulfilled before their very eyes. The city is besieged, and the end is near. However, this chapter marks a significant pivot. It is nestled among the great promises of the "Book of Consolation" (Jeremiah 30-33), which includes the glorious promise of the New Covenant in the previous chapter. This act of buying a field serves as the physical anchor for those spiritual promises. It demonstrates that the New Covenant is not some ethereal, disembodied reality. God is concerned with land, property, houses, vineyards, and the full-orbed life of His people. The judgment is real, but the restoration will be just as real. This chapter provides the tangible proof that God intends to keep His people as a people, in a place, under His blessing.

Key Issues

Real Estate and Redemption

There is a time to sell and a time to buy. From a purely human perspective, with the Babylonian army about to overrun the country and deport the population, this was a seller's market only if the seller was desperate and the buyer was a fool. Real estate values in Anathoth were about to hit rock bottom. And yet, God commands His prophet to buy. This is because God's economy operates on a different set of principles than man's. He is the one who ultimately owns the land, and He is the one who determines its future value. This entire chapter is a lesson in divine economics, where the currency is faith and the investment is in the sure promises of a covenant-keeping God. Jeremiah is not just buying a piece of dirt; he is purchasing a future. He is making a down payment on the restoration of Israel, a promise that God Himself has underwritten.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1-2 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 military force of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah,

The stage is set with grim precision. The date is specific, around 587 B.C., just before the final destruction of Jerusalem. The circumstances are dire: the Babylonian army, God's instrument of judgment, has the city in a chokehold. And the prophet of God is not in a position of honor, but is a prisoner in his own capital city, confined to the royal palace grounds. The irony is thick. The king, who should be guarding the nation, has instead imprisoned the one man who speaks the word of the Lord, the only word that can make sense of their predicament.

3-5 because Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it; and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye; and he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him,” declares Yahweh. “If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed” ’?”

Here we have the reason for Jeremiah's imprisonment. It was not for treason, but for truth. Zedekiah's question is not one of genuine inquiry but of exasperated accusation. He quotes Jeremiah's prophecy back to him, a prophecy of unmitigated disaster. Notice the specificity: the city will be captured, Zedekiah will not escape, he will have a humiliating face-to-face encounter with Nebuchadnezzar, and he will be taken to Babylon. Zedekiah's problem is not with the prophet, but with the prophecy. He wants a different message, a more positive outlook. Like so many rulers then and now, he prefers the comforting lies of false prophets to the hard truths of God. He is fighting a war on two fronts: against the Babylonians outside the walls and against the word of God inside his own palace.

6-7 And Jeremiah said, “The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, “Buy for yourself my field which is at Anathoth, for you have the legal judgment for redemption to buy it.” ’

Into this scene of despair and denial, the word of the Lord comes again. But this time, it is not a word of judgment but a command to perform a strange act of hope. God gives Jeremiah a heads-up: your cousin Hanamel is on his way to offer you a real estate deal. The property is in Anathoth, Jeremiah's hometown, which was currently occupied territory behind enemy lines. The key phrase is legal judgment for redemption. This refers to the law of the kinsman-redeemer (Leviticus 25:25), where the nearest relative had the right and duty to buy back family land to keep it within the clan. This is not just a commercial transaction; it is a covenantal obligation, and the concept points directly to our ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, who buys His people back from the slavery of sin.

8 Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of Yahweh and said to me, ‘Buy my field, please, that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for you have the legal judgment for possession, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of Yahweh.

And just as God said, it happens. Hanamel shows up, right there in the prison courtyard, and makes the exact offer God had foretold. For Jeremiah, this is the confirmation. His confidence is not based on an internal feeling or a subjective impression. It is based on the objective word of God being confirmed by objective events in the real world. "Then I knew that this was the word of Yahweh." This is the foundation of prophetic certainty. God speaks, and then God acts, proving His word is true. Hanamel, likely in financial distress because of the siege, is looking to liquidate a worthless asset. He has no idea he is an instrument in the hands of a sovereign God, playing a key role in a great drama of redemption.

9-12 “I bought the field which was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle’s son, and I weighed out the silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver. And I signed and sealed the deed and called in witnesses and weighed out the silver on the scales. Then I took the deeds of purchase, both the sealed copy containing the commandment and statutes and the open copy, and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle’s son and in the sight of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, in the sight of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.

Jeremiah obeys. And he does so with painstaking attention to every legal detail. This is not a symbolic, back-of-the-napkin deal. He weighs the silver, a specific amount. He executes a formal deed. He has it witnessed. He creates two copies: a sealed one for the permanent record, protected from tampering, and an open one for easy reference. And he does all of this publicly, in front of everyone who was there in the court of the guard. This was a public testimony. Every step was designed to communicate the reality and legality of the transaction. God's promises for the future are not flimsy; they are as solid and verifiable as this purchase. The message to the watching Jews was clear: this prophet, who has been right about the coming judgment, is now staking his own money on a future restoration.

13-15 And I commanded Baruch in their sight, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds, this deed of purchase, that is the sealed one as well as this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, that they may last a long time.” For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.” ’

Finally, the meaning of the sign-act is explicitly stated. Jeremiah instructs his scribe, Baruch, to take the deeds and place them in a clay pot for long-term storage, a common practice in the ancient world for preserving important documents. The reason? They are going to be needed again. The exile will come, the land will lie desolate, but this is not the end of the story. The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the one who is sovereign over the armies of Babylon and the destiny of nations, makes a solemn promise: normal life will return. People will once again buy houses, fields, and vineyards in this land. The judgment is a temporary, though terrible, interruption. The covenant promise of the land remains. This act was a tangible guarantee of the future, a down payment on a hope that was rooted in the character of God Himself.

Application

The message of Jeremiah 32 is a timeless word to the people of God. We too live in a world that often seems to be under siege, where the circumstances look bleak and the future uncertain. The temptation is to act like Zedekiah: to deny reality, to silence the hard truths of God's word, and to despair. But God calls us to be like Jeremiah. He calls us to look the grim reality square in the eye, and yet to live our lives based not on the circumstances, but on the certain promises of God.

What does it mean for us to "buy the field" today? It means investing our lives, our families, our resources, and our futures in the kingdom of God, even when it looks like a foolish investment to the world. It means starting a business, planting a church, having children and raising them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and building institutions that will last for generations, all in the confident belief that Jesus is King and His kingdom will not fail. Our hope is not in the shifting sands of politics or economics, but in the sealed deed of Christ's finished work on the cross and His resurrection. That is our guarantee of a future. Like Jeremiah's deed in the clay pot, God's promises are preserved for us, and they guarantee a day when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. So let us not lose heart. Let us buy the field.