People will again buy farms in Israel
1The Lord talked to Jeremiah. It was in the 10th year after Zedekiah had become king_of_Judah, and the 18th year after Nebuchadnezzar had become king in Babylon. 2At that time the king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and the prophet Jeremiah was in jail in the courtyard of the guards of the king_of_Judah. 3King Zedekiah of Judah had put Jeremiah in jail because Jeremiah had given a message from the Lord and said: ‘The Lord says: I will help the king of Babylon to win the war_against this city. 4And Zedekiah, king_of_Judah, will not be able to flee from the Babylonians. I will give him to the king of Babylon, this is sure. The king will talk to Zedekiah and he will see him 5and he will take Zedekiah away to Babylon. Zedekiah will stay there until I do with him what I have decided. You will go to war_against the Babylonians, but you will not win.’
6Jeremiah said: ‘The Lord talked to me and He said: 7“Your cousin, Hanamel, son of Shallum, will come to you and he will ask you to buy his field in Anathoth, because in your family you are his protector and you must buy the field.”
8It happened as the Lord had said to me. My cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the palace guards and he said to me: “Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, because you are my protector and you may buy it. Buy the land for yourself.” I knew that it was the Lord who had talked to me, 9and I bought the field of my cousin Hanamel in Anathoth. I paid him 17 shekels of silver for it. 10After I had written the agreement for the sale, I put my seal on it and I wrote the names of the witnesses on it. Then I took the silver and I weighed it on a balance-scale. 11We wrote everything that we had decided in the agreement and my seal was on it, and I wrote another agreement that was the same as the first one. One was for me and one for Hanamel. 12I gave the agreements to Baruch, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah. My cousin Hanamel and all the people of Judah who were sitting in the courtyard could see it.
13They heard when I talked to Baruch. I said: 14“The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: “‘You must take these 2 agreements and you must put them in a clay pot so that they will be safe there for a long time.”’ 15Because the Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: “‘People will again buy houses and fields and vineyards in this land.”’ ” ’
Jeremiah prays
16‘After I gave the agreement to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord. I said:
17“O Lord, my God, You have made heaven and earth with your great power. There is nothing that You can not do. 18You are good to thousands of people but You punish people for the sins of their forefathers. You are the Great God, the God who can go to war and always win. Your name is the Lord who rules over all. 19You plan and do great things. You see everything that people do, You look at how they have lived and what they have done and You reward everyone and give them what is right. 20You did signs and miracles in the land of Egypt. The Israelites and the other people remember it all, even until today, and they all honour You. 21You did signs and miracles and You saved your people, the Israelites, from Egypt with your great strength, and the Egyptians became afraid of You. 22You gave this land to your people, the land that You had promised to give to their forefathers. It is a land with a lot of food, milk and honey. 23Your people came and they started to live in this land, but they did not listen to You and to your laws. They did not do what You wanted them to do, and that is why You have punished them.
24The Babylonians are making war_against us. Look, they have already started to build a ramp against the wall of the city to climb over the wall. There is famine in the city and people are dying from diseases. Everything that You have said is happening now. You can see it for Yourself. 25Lord, my God, You told me to buy the field and said there must be witnesses who see it, but now You are giving the city to the Babylonians. Why?” ’
26Then the Lord said to Jeremiah: 27‘I am the Lord, the God of all people. I can do anything, and nothing is impossible for Me. 28That is why I will help the Babylonians and the king of Babylon to win the war_against this city. 29The Babylonians who came to war_against this city will come inside the city and they will burn it down. They will burn down the houses where the people of Jerusalem came together on the roofs to bring incense-offerings for Baal and where they poured out drink-offerings for other gods to make Me angry. 30The Israelites and people of Judah started when they were young to do things that I do not like. They made idols and they made Me angry. 31They have made Me angry from the time that they built this city until today, and I want to destroy this city now. It must disappear. I don't want to see it. 32I want to do it because of all the bad things that the Israelites and the people of Judah have done to make Me angry, they and their kings, their officials, their priests and their prophets, the people of Judah and the people who live in Jerusalem. 33They have turned their backs to Me, not their faces. I kept on teaching them, but they did not listen and they did not live as I wanted them to. 34They put their idols in my temple, the temple where people must worship my name, and they made my temple impure. 35They built places_of_sacrifice for Baal in the Ben-Hinnom Valley to burn their sons and daughters there. I did not tell them to bring offerings like that. I never thought of anything like that. I hate it that the people of Judah did that sin.’
The Lord gives his people a promise
36‘Now the Lord, the God of Israel, says: You say that I will give this city to the king of Babylon, and I will bring war and famine and diseases into this city. 37Yes, I was angry, and I was not pleased. I chased the people of this city away, but I will bring them back from all the lands and I will bring them back home safely. 38They will be my people and I will be their God. 39I will make them want to be my people forever, to serve Me and to live as I want, so that all will be well with them and their children. 40I will make a covenant with them forever. I will not go away from them. I will be good to them. I will change their hearts so that they will want to serve Me and so that they will not go away from Me. 41I will enjoy being good to them. I will really plant them in this land, and I will do it with all my heart.’
42Yes, the Lord says: ‘I made these people suffer, and that is how I will make them happy when I am good to them, as I promised. 43You say this land is empty, and that there are no people living here and the Babylonians took away all the animals. But I say: People will buy farms here again. 44They will pay money and buy farms and write agreements and put seals on them and write the names of the witnesses on them. They will buy farms in the land of Benjamin and around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah and in the towns of the lowlands and in the Negev, because I will be good to them again.’ This is what the Lord says.
