Jeremiah 32 Study Notes

32:1-2 The promise of a bright future was given during one of Judah’s darkest moments in 588 BC when Jeremiah was imprisoned in the guard’s courtyard (33:1), in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah and the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. This dating is correct if Nebuchadnezzar’s reign is based on his accession year in the fall of 605 BC (see note at 25:1). His first official full year as king was 604 BC (52:29). Otherwise, his eighteenth year by Jewish reckoning was his seventeenth by Babylonian reckoning.

32:3-5 The Babylonian siege, which began in King Zedekiah’s ninth year (39:1), was temporarily lifted when news came that the Egyptian army was approaching (37:5). Jeremiah was arrested during this lull in the siege on the grounds that he was trying to escape and because he was encouraging Judah to surrender to Babylon (37:11-14). It was God who would hand this city over to Babylon’s king, but it would be Nebuchadnezzar who would capture it, showing that God’s overarching plan for history is fulfilled by human actions. Zedekiah would be left in Babylon until God attended to him. Attend in this context connotes a sense of threat.

32:6 After the parenthetical explanation in vv. 2-5, v. 6 picks up from v. 1 with a first-person description of what is about to take place.

32:7 Jeremiah was given symbolic evidence for the hope he had just preached about Israel’s future. His cousin, Hanamel, would offer him the right of redemption for family property in his hometown of Anathoth. The legal precedent for this action is found in Lv 25:25-28. In the event of poverty or debt, the next of kin had the right to purchase the property, keeping it in the family. This same type of transaction is demonstrated in the Ruth story (Ru 3:9-13; 4:1-12).

32:8 Jeremiah had the right of inheritance and redemption in relation to the property.

32:9 The prophet purchased the land for seventeen shekels of silver. This refers to the weight of the silver. Coins were not used until the Persian period in the seventh century BC. Monetary values were set by weighing ingots of precious metals. Silver was one of the chief forms of payment. A hoard of such ingots from Jeremiah’s time was found in a cooking pot beneath the floor in En-gedi and another was discovered in Tel Miqne-Ekron from the same period.

32:10-11 Four steps were involved in this real estate transaction: Jeremiah recorded the transaction on a scroll, sealed it, called in witnesses, and stored it in two copies, a sealed copy and an open copy. The sealed copy was rolled up with a seal placed on the outside as a backup copy to verify that no tampering had taken place. The open copy was a duplicate.

32:12 Jeremiah’s scribe was Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah. A number of seal impressions (known as bullae) used to seal documents on parchments or papyrus have been discovered. One says, “Berekyahu son of Neriyahu the scribe.” This seal’s origin is unknown, but the names inscribed on it accord with this verse, for the divine name (Yahweh, or the Lord) is indicated by Yahu, which appears as a suffix to the names Baruch and Neriah. Baruch, meaning “blessed,” is the shortened form of the proper name on this seal impression.

32:13-14 The earthen storage jar that Jeremiah used was the kind in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were sealed. Other such jars have been found at Elephantine, Egypt.

32:15 Jeremiah’s purchase of the field at Anathoth symbolized Israel’s future restoration to the land.

32:16-17 Only twice in his book is Jeremiah recorded as praying—here and in 42:4. In this prayer the prophet declared, Nothing is too difficult for you! His emphasis was not on the difficulty of what God does, but on the “wondrous” (Hb pele’) nature of the divine work in creation and history (Gn 18:14; Ex 3:20; 15:11).

32:18 The phrase You show faithful love to thousands occurs also in Ex 20:6; Dt 5:10 (cp. Ex 34:7; Dt 7:9). God’s retribution is just and fair, not capricious. He only lays the fathers’ iniquity on their sons’ laps when they themselves repeat those sins.

32:19-20 Note the Lord watches not only his people but all the ways of the children of men.

32:21-22 You brought your people Israel out of Egypt repeats the language of Dt 26:8-9.

32:23-25 Buying a field seems absurd in the light of current circumstances.

32:26-27 On Is anything too difficult for me? see note at vv. 16-17.

32:28-35 The first-person pronoun appears ten times in these verses. God’s anger is real, but its expression is always contingent on Israel’s repentance.

32:33 Once again, Israel had turned their backs to God and not their faces (see note at 18:17).

32:35 The idolatrous worship of Baal and Molech, in which Israel sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire (see notes at 7:31; 19:4) is also banned in Lv 18:21 and 20:2-5.

32:36-44 In six remarkable promises in these verses, God declared that he will: (1) gather his people from all lands (23:3; 29:14; 30:10; 31:8-14; Is 11:12; Ezk 11:17; 36:24); (2) make them live in safety; (3) declare that they will be my people, and I will be their God; (4) give them integrity of heart and action so that they will fear me always; (5) make a permanent covenant with them (Is 55:3; 61:8; Ezk 16:60; 37:26); and (6) take delight in them and faithfully plant them in this land.

32:41 God pledges to carry this out with all his heart and mind. This is the only place in the OT where this expression is used of God.

32:42-44 The last verses of this chapter return to Jeremiah’s purchase of the field in Anathoth. This was a sure sign that fields in Judah would once again belong to Hebrews in the future. This will include all the geographical areas in Israel, from Benjamin, where Jeremiah’s purchase was made, to Jerusalem . . . Judah’s cities and all the way south to the Negev.