Jeremiah 32

Jerusalem is under siege and Jeremiah is locked up for saying it will fall. Then God tells him to buy a field, and the purchase becomes a sign that the exiles will one day return. After Jeremiah’s prayer, God confirms that judgment is certain and that restoration, under an everlasting covenant, is just as certain.

Jeremiah 32:1-2

The word comes near the end, with Babylon’s army around Jerusalem. Jeremiah is not free to preach. He is confined in the guard’s courtyard at the palace. God’s word can still reach him, and go out from him, even in custody.

BSA: imprisoned (“shut up, confined”): Jeremiah is shut in, yet God’s word is not shut in with him.

Jeremiah 32:3-5

King Zedekiah had jailed Jeremiah for announcing that Babylon would take the city and the king himself. Zedekiah would meet Nebuchadnezzar face to face and be carried off. The message was unwelcome, but it was what God had said, and the king’s resistance could not change it.

BSA: attend to him (“visit, oversee, reckon with”): God is still in charge of the king’s fate. He will one day come to deal with Zedekiah himself.

Jeremiah 32:6-7

God tells Jeremiah ahead of time that his cousin Hanamel will come and ask him to buy a family field. The field is in Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home town. Under Israel’s law, a relative had the duty to keep family land from passing to strangers.

BSA: redemption (“the act of buying back, restoring”): The duty to buy back family land is a picture of rescue and restoration.

Hebrew: גְּאֻלָּה (geʼullah, H1353) — “redemption, the right of buying back.” It comes from the word for the kinsman-redeemer, the relative who steps in to rescue family property or family members. Here that old duty becomes a sign of hope.

See also: Leviticus 25:25.

Jeremiah 32:8

Hanamel arrives just as God had said. That fulfilled word confirmed to Jeremiah that the strange request was from the LORD. The offer looks like bad business, since the land is about to be overrun. God’s word proves itself before the hard part is obeyed.

BSA: knew (“ascertained, understood”): Jeremiah worked out from the exact match with God’s word that the request really was from the LORD.

Jeremiah 32:9-10

Jeremiah pays seventeen shekels of silver and makes it fully legal. He signs the deed, seals it, calls witnesses and weighs the silver on scales. He treats the purchase as completely real, even though the war makes the land look worthless.

BSA: weighed out (“measured carefully, paid”): Silver was paid by weight, and Jeremiah carefully counted out every shekel. sealed (“closed and locked, authenticated”): The seal made the deed official and protected it from tampering.

Hebrew: וָאֶשְׁקְלָה (waʼeshqelah, H8254) — “and I weighed out.” Shekel is simply a unit of weight. In that day, silver was paid out by the scale and not counted as coins.

Jeremiah 32:11-12

There were two copies of the deed. The sealed one protected the terms, and the open one could be consulted. Jeremiah hands them to Baruch, his faithful secretary, in front of Hanamel, the witnesses and the Jews sitting in the courtyard. Everything is done publicly, so the act can speak to many.

Jeremiah 32:13-15

God now explains the meaning. The deeds go into a clay jar so they will last a long time. The message is that houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought and sold in this land. The exile will not be the end of the story.

BSA: clay (“earthenware, pottery”): Ordinary pottery was a humble and durable way to store documents for a long time.

Hebrew: חֶרֶשׂ (ḥereś, H2789) — “earthenware, pottery.” A plain jar kept the deeds safe through years of waiting. God’s promise was equally dependable, though it might look unimpressive for a long while.

See also: Jeremiah 29:10.

Jeremiah 32:16-17

Once the deed is handed over, Jeremiah prays. The purchase seems to contradict what he has been preaching, so he turns to the Creator who made heaven and earth. He lays his confusion before God and declares that nothing is too hard for Him.

BSA: difficult (“too hard, too wonderful, or too amazing”): What seems impossible to us is only a wonder to God.

Hebrew: יִפָּלֵא (yippālēʾ, H6381) — “is too wonderful, too hard.” The word is related to the Hebrew word for wonders. The same word says that something is beyond our reach and that it is a marvel in God’s hands.

See also: Genesis 18:14.

Jeremiah 32:18-19

Jeremiah describes God as both kind and just. He shows faithful love to thousands, and He also holds people accountable, with sin’s consequences reaching down through the generations. His eyes see every path, and He repays each person fairly.

BSA: loving devotion (“kindness, mercy, pity”): God’s covenant love is warm, tender and generous, not merely dutiful.

Hebrew: חֶסֶד (ḥesed, H2617) — “loyal, covenant love.” It means steadfast love that sticks to its promises. It is the very quality that Jeremiah is counting on in this prayer.

See also: Exodus 34:6-7.

Jeremiah 32:20-23

Jeremiah looks back. God broke Egypt’s grip with signs and wonders, and He gave Israel the land He swore to their fathers. But the people refused to obey or walk in His law. The coming disaster is not a mystery. It is the result of their long disobedience.

BSA: disaster (“evil, calamity, trouble”): The same word can mean evil or calamity. What the people did returns on them as trouble.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:15; Exodus 6:6.

Jeremiah 32:24

Jeremiah points to the siege ramps. The city is about to fall by sword, famine and plague, just as God said. Every part of it is happening before their eyes. The word of God does not fail, even when its fulfillment is painful.

BSA: spoken (“communicated, promised”): What God has promised, whether judgment or blessing, comes to pass.

Jeremiah 32:25

Here is Jeremiah’s puzzle. God told him to buy the field and call witnesses, though the city is already in Babylonian hands. Obeying God can feel foolish when circumstances shout the opposite. Jeremiah brings his honest question to God without drawing back from the command.

BSA: witnesses (“have them testify, affirm”): The witnesses will later testify that this land was bought while Jerusalem was still besieged.

Jeremiah 32:26-27

God answers Jeremiah’s own words back to him. He is the God of all flesh, meaning all humanity, so no nation lies outside His rule. The question, ‘Is anything too difficult for Me?’, answers Jeremiah’s confession in verse 17 and invites him to trust.

BSA: flesh (“humanity, living creatures”): God’s rule covers every human being, including the Babylonians.

Hebrew: בָּשָׂר (bāśār, H1320) — “flesh, all living beings.” The word stresses human frailty. All people are weak, and the Lord of all flesh is not.

Jeremiah 32:28-29

First comes the hard truth. God will give the city to Nebuchadnezzar, and the Chaldeans will burn it, including the houses where people worshiped Baal on their rooftops. The fire falls on the very places where idolatry was practiced.

BSA: rooftops (“upper rooms, high places”): Flat roofs of homes had become private altars to false gods.

Jeremiah 32:30-32

God lists the charge. From their youth the people of Israel and Judah did evil and provoked Him. Kings, officials, priests, prophets and ordinary people all share the guilt. The judgment is therefore not sudden or unfair, since the sin was long and widespread.

BSA: presence (“My face, My sight”): The worst part of judgment is being removed from God’s face and favor.

Jeremiah 32:33

The people turned their backs on God instead of their faces. Yet God had been patient, teaching again and again. They refused both to listen and to be corrected. The wounds of exile came after many warnings, not before them.

BSA: again and again (“rising early, with persistence”): God is pictured as a teacher who gets up early day after day to instruct them.

Hebrew: הַשְׁכֵּם (hashkēm, H7925) — “rising early.” This Hebrew verb is used of getting up at dawn to do something faithfully. God taught His people with that same eagerness and persistence.

See also: Jeremiah 7:13.

Jeremiah 32:34-35

They set up idols in the temple, the house that bears God’s Name. In the Valley of Hinnom they even offered their children to Molech. God says He never commanded this and that it never entered His mind. It is one of the darkest charges in the whole book.

BSA: bears (“is called by, named after”): The temple belonged to God and carried His name, which made the defilement worse. pass through (“be given over to, sacrificed in”): The phrase hides the horror of child sacrifice.

See also: Leviticus 18:21; 2 Kings 23:10.

Jeremiah 32:36-38

Now God turns. The city Jeremiah said would fall is the same city God will restore. He will gather His scattered people from every land, bring them back and let them live in safety. The old covenant words return: they will be His people, and He will be their God.

BSA: safety (“security, protection, refuge”): God promises a security that rests on His protection.

See also: Jeremiah 30:3; Ezekiel 11:20.

Jeremiah 32:39-40

God promises to change them from the inside. He will give one heart and one way, and put His fear in their hearts, so they will not turn away again. This is an everlasting covenant, and the promise rests on what God does, not on what they manage.

BSA: heart (“the seat of feelings, will, and intellect”): God will remake the center of the whole person, not just outward behavior. everlasting (“age-during, forever”): This covenant has no end date.

Hebrew: בְּרִית עוֹלָם (berit ʿolam, H1285) — “everlasting covenant.” The phrase marks a binding promise meant to last without end. Christians have seen it fulfilled in the new covenant that Jeremiah announces elsewhere.

See also: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:26-27.

Jeremiah 32:41

God does not bless reluctantly. He says that He will rejoice in doing them good and will plant them in the land with all His heart and all His soul. Even after judgment, the Lord’s delight in His people is the surprising center of the promise.

BSA: faithfully (“with my whole heart, in truth”): God’s care for His people is wholehearted and true.

Hebrew: שַׂשְׂתִּי (śaśtî, H7797) — “I will rejoice, exult.” It is a word of real gladness, used of the joy of a bridegroom. God does good to His people gladly.

See also: Zephaniah 3:17.

Jeremiah 32:42

God points to His own record. He brought the great disaster as promised, so He will also bring the good He promised. The same faithfulness that made the warnings come true stands behind the hopes. The people can trust both halves of His word.

Jeremiah 32:43-44

Jeremiah’s deed was not foolish. Fields will again be bought, and deeds signed, sealed and witnessed, across Benjamin, Jerusalem’s surroundings and the cities of Judah, from hills to foothills to the Negev. The land people call a desolation will be lived in again, because God will restore them.

BSA: restore (“or return, turn back”): The exile will be turned around, and what was lost will be given back.

See also: Jeremiah 33:7.