Holy Bible - Obsidian Study Guide

Purchase Field

3 min read

Purchase Field

Overview

  • Testament: Old
  • Book: Jeremiah
  • Chapters: Jeremiah 32
  • Summary: While Jerusalem was under Babylonian siege and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the palace court, God commanded him to buy a field from his cousin in Anathoth — a symbolic act declaring that life, commerce, and land ownership would return to Judah.

Details

In the tenth year of Zedekiah, while the Babylonian army was besieging Jerusalem and Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard, God told Jeremiah that his cousin Hanamel would come offering to sell him a field in Anathoth. When Hanamel came exactly as predicted, Jeremiah knew it was the word of the LORD and bought the field for seventeen shekels of silver. He followed all the legal requirements: weighing the silver, signing the deed, sealing it, having witnesses, writing an open copy. He gave the documents to Baruch his secretary and commanded them to be placed in an earthen vessel for long keeping, “For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.”

After the transaction, Jeremiah prayed a lengthy prayer (32:17-25) expressing his awe at God’s greatness and then his confusion: “Behold, thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money… yet the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.” God answered with a confirmation of both the coming judgment and the promised restoration: Jerusalem would fall because of its sin, but afterward God would regather, replant, and make an everlasting covenant with his people. The field purchase was God’s enacted visual aid for that promise.

Key People Involved

  • Jeremiah — The prophet who bought the field in faith
  • Hanamel — Jeremiah’s cousin; the seller
  • Baruch — Jeremiah’s secretary who received the deeds

Key Places

  • Anathoth — The field purchased; Jeremiah’s ancestral hometown
  • Jerusalem — Where Jeremiah was imprisoned during the siege

Important Verses

“For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.” — Jeremiah 32:15

Cross-References

Notes

The field purchase is a prophetic sign-act — a physical deed that embodies and communicates a theological message. Jeremiah’s careful adherence to legal procedure (witnesses, sealed and open copies, earthen vessel preservation) ironically invests more in legal continuity at the moment of maximum national crisis than anyone else in the city. His prayer of confusion (32:25) is notably honest: God told him to buy it, he obeyed, and yet he doesn’t fully understand why. The act of obedient faith preceded full comprehension — a pattern the NT connects to Abraham.

Graph View

Backlinks