Jeremiah 32:6-15

B. The Purchase of a Field Jeremiah 32:6-15

TRANSLATION

(6) And Jeremiah said: The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (7) Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come unto you, saying, Purchase for yourself my field which is in Anathoth, for you possess the right of redemption to purchase it. (8) And Hanamel my cousin came unto the Court of the Guard just as the LORD had spoken, and said unto me, Purchase my field, please, that is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin; for You have the right of possession and redemption. Purchase it for yourself! And I knew that it was the word of the LORD. (9) And I purchased the field which was in Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin and I weighted out to him the silver, seventeen silver shekels. (10) Then I wrote a deed and sealed it and had men witness it and weighed out the silver on the scales. (11) And I took the deed of purchase, the sealed copy as is customary and lawful, and the opened copy; (12) and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin and in the presence of all the men of Judah who were sitting in the court of the guard. (13) And I commanded Baruch in their presence, saying, (14) Thus says the LORD of hosts the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this sealed deed of purchase, and this open deed, and put them in a clay vessel in order that they might last for many days. (15) For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Once again houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased in this land.

COMMENTS

In those dark days when the national catastrophe was taking shape, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah. God revealed to him that a relative, Hanamel, would come to visit him in the court of the guard requesting that he exercise his right and duty as near kinsman to purchase a field in Anathoth. That Hanamel was a cousin to Jeremiah is made clear in Jeremiah 32:8-9.[281] The law of land-tenure in ancient Israel provided that an estate remain within a family (Leviticus 25:25). If a piece of property had to be sold, the nearest of kin had the duty and right to purchase it. The procedure that was followed in such cases is clearly outlined in the fourth chapter of Ruth. The tribe of Levi did not receive a tribal inheritance following the conquest, the priests were allotted thirteen cities (Joshua 21:19) and the Levites forty-eight (Joshua 21:41; Numbers 35:2-9). Hence, the priests would have owned property which could be sold only to fellow members of the tribe of Levi (Leviticus 25:32-34).

[281] The words your uncle refer to Shallum in Jeremiah 32:7. In Jeremiah 32:12 the word son of seems to have dropped out of the text, no doubt accidentally omitted by a copyist. The Septuagint, Peshitta and several Hebrew manuscripts support the reading son of in Jeremiah 32:12. The hypothesis that the Hanamel in Jeremiah 32:12 is a different individual from the one mentioned in the earlier verses is most unlikely.

Hanamel made his appearance at the court of the guard just as God had revealed. One can only conjecture as to why Hanamel wished to dispose of his property. He may have needed to convert his real estate into silver to pay off debts. On the other hand he may have desired to leave the area because of the Chaldean threat. Jeremiah being the nearest kinsman had first opportunity to purchase the property.[282]

[282] Hanamel either had no children or else they were too young to assume ownership of the property.

A business transaction was conducted there in the court of the guard. With careful attention to all legal details, the sale was concluded and the deed executed in the customary manner. The purchase price was mutually agreed upon and the pieces of silverseventeen shekelswere carefully weighed. -The price appears to be very low and several explanations of this fact have been proposed. Perhaps the field was small to start with. It is not at all unlikely that a real estate panic had been created by the recent Babylonian incursions. Furthermore, in ancient Israel the price of any property diminished as the year of Jubilee, every fiftieth year, drew near for in that year all real estate reverted back to the original owners.

The business transaction conducted by Hanamel and Jeremiah has been illuminated by numerous finds in the ancient Near East. (a) Jeremiah wrote in the book (Jeremiah 32:10). The word translated book (Hebrew sepher) can refer to any size document. Here the book is either the bill of sale or the deed or both. Jeremiah set forth in this business document all the particulars of the transaction.

(b) In accordance with ancient legal procedure a duplicate copy of the contract was made. The Babylonians would encase their legal contracts in a clay envelope upon which a copy of the document was recorded. The outer clay envelope was open for examination at any time; the inner clay tablet was consulted if any disagreement arose and it was suspected that the contract had been tampered with. In such a case the clay envelope was broken in the presence of witnesses to see if the sealed or hidden text agreed with that recorded on the envelope. The reference to the sealed and the open purchase agreement in Jeremiah 32:11; Jeremiah 32:14 is to the inner tablet and the outer envelope.

(c) Witnesses were summoned (Jeremiah 32:10). They apparently read and then signed the contract (Jeremiah 32:12).

(d) The silver was weighed out in the balance (Jeremiah 32:10).

(e) The two copies of the contract were given to Baruch to be put into an earthen jar which served as sort of a filing cabinet. Such jars have been excavated. This is the first reference to Baruch in the Book of Jeremiah although chronologically his first appearance is recorded in chapter 36.

A cunsiform envelope and business document from the second millennium B.G.

In Jeremiah's day the double registration of purchase may have been recorded on papyrus. One copy was then rolled up and sealed while the other was rolled, left unsealed and placed in a closed cylinder.

The purpose of the whole elaborate transaction is indicated in a brief oracle contained in Jeremiah 32:15. By his purchase of the field in Anathoth the prophet was dramatically demonstrating his faith in God's word that houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land. Considering the fact that Anathoth at that very moment was probably under Chaldean control, this was a most amazing action on the part of Jeremiah. One is only left to guess what kind of impact this dramatic act had on those Jews who were present in the court of the guard (Jeremiah 32:12).