Jeremiah 32

32 ¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from our Father in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ² At that time the army 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 palace of the king of Judah.

³ For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, "Why do you prophesy and say, 'Thus says our Father: Look, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it; ⁴ and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye; ⁵ and he will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he will remain until I attend to him, declares our Father. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.'"

⁶ And Jeremiah said, "The word of our Father came to me:

⁷ Look, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you to say, 'Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption to buy it is yours.'

⁸ Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, just as our Father had said, and he said to me, 'Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of our Father.

⁹ So I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and I weighed out the money for him—about 6.8 ounces of silver. ¹⁰ I signed the deed and sealed it, called in witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. ¹¹ Then I took the deed of purchase, both the sealed copy with its terms and conditions and the open copy, ¹² and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my cousin, in the sight of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the sight of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.

¹³ And in their presence I charged Baruch:

¹⁴ "Thus says the Father of heaven's armies, our Father of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, so that they may last a long time. ¹⁵ For thus says the Father of heaven's armies, our Father of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land."

Jeremiah's Prayer: Nothing Too Hard for You

¹⁶ After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to our Father: ¹⁷ "Ah, Sovereign Father! You yourself made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; nothing is too hard for you. ¹⁸ You show covenant love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of the parents into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty Father — the Father of heaven's armies is his name ¹⁹ —great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of mankind, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. ²⁰ You showed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day, both in Israel and among all mankind, and you made a name for yourself, as at this day. ²¹ You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror. ²² And you gave them this land, which you swore to their ancestors to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ And they came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey your voice or walk in your law; they did nothing of all that you commanded them to do. So you have brought all this disaster upon them. ²⁴ Look, the siege ramps have reached the city to capture it, and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of sword and famine and pestilence. What you spoke has come to pass, and now you see it. ²⁵ Yet you, Sovereign Father, said to me, 'Buy the field for money and call in witnesses'—though the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans."

²⁶ Then the word of our Father came to Jeremiah:

²⁷ "I am the Father of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? ²⁸ Therefore thus says our Father: Look, I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will capture it. ²⁹ The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire and burn it, along with the houses on whose roofs offerings were made to Baal and drink offerings poured out to other gods, provoking me to anger.

³⁰ For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; indeed, the children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares our Father. ³¹ This city has stirred my anger and my wrath from the day they built it to this day, so that I will remove it from before my face, ³² because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—they, their kings, their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³³ They turned their back to me and not their face; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or receive correction. ³⁴ They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do this abomination and cause Judah to sin.

They Will Be My Children; I Will Be Their Father

³⁶ Now therefore, thus says our Father of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, 'It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and pestilence': ³⁷ Look, I am going to gather them from all the lands to which I drove them in my anger, my wrath, and great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place and let them dwell in safety. ³⁸ They will be my children, and I will be their Father. ³⁹ I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me always, for their own good and the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will never turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from me. ⁴¹ I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all my heart and all my soul.

⁴² For thus says our Father: Just as I brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I am promising them. ⁴³ Fields will be bought in this land of which you are saying, 'It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.' ⁴⁴ Fields will be bought for money, deeds will be signed and sealed and witnessed, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes, declares our Father."