Jeremiah 32:1

JEREMIAH 32

JEREMIAH PURCHASES A FIELD IN ANATHOTH

This chapter records another historical incident in the life of the prophet Jeremiah. The time was during the final months of the siege of Jerusalem which resulted in the final capture and destruction of the city and the deportation of the population to Babylon. Zedekiah was on the throne of Judah, this being in his tenth year as king, which was the eighteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, that Isaiah 588-87 B.C. There is no point whatever in complaining that, according to the Babylonian method of reckoning the reign of kings, this was only the seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonians did not count the year of accession to the throne; but the Hebrews did.

George DeHoff noted that the siege, "Began the year before and apparently lasted eighteen months and twenty-seven days (2 Kings 25:18)."[1]

In the year preceding this chapter, "The siege had been lifted for a short while by the arrival near Jerusalem of an Egyptian army led by Pharaoh-Hophra (Jeremiah 44:30), the Apries of Herodotus, an ally of Zedekiah against Babylon (Ezekiel 17:15); but the Egyptians were either defeated quickly or decided to withdraw. In any case, the siege was promptly renewed with increased vigor";[2] and in the meanwhile, famine, and disease were daily rendering Jerusalem less and less able to defend itself.

At the time of this chapter, Jeremiah was a prisoner of Zedekiah, who, distressed by Jeremiah's prophecies concerning Jerusalem and its king, had imprisoned the prophet; but, at the time of the incident recorded here, Zedekiah had yielded to Jeremiah's request to be removed from the dungeon and had quartered him in the stockade area of the palace, where, it seems, Jeremiah enjoyed some privileges.

A broad outline of the chapter is: (1) a statement of the historical situation (Jeremiah 32:1-5); (2) Jeremiah was commanded to purchase a field in Anathoth, which he promptly did (Jeremiah 32:6-15); (3) perplexed by what God had commanded him to do, and perhaps entertaining some doubt, the prophet poured out a long prayer to God (Jeremiah 32:16-25); (4) God's first answer (Jeremiah 32:26-35; (5) God's second answer (Jeremiah 32:36-44).

Jeremiah 32:1-5

"The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah's house. For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes; And he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith Jehovah: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper."

"Was besieging Jerusalem ..." (Jeremiah 32:2). The journey of Jeremiah to purchase that field in Anathoth did not take place during the brief lifting of the siege in the preceding year, but after the siege had been renewed.

"Wherefore dost thou prophesy ..." (Jeremiah 32:3). Zedekiah here repeated the prophecies of Jeremiah for which he had retaliated by casting the prophet into prison. It seems incredible that he would still have disbelieved Jeremiah after all the fulfillments of Jeremiah's prophecies which had taken place and were still taking place before his very eyes.

"There shall he be until I visit him ..." (Jeremiah 32:5) God's "visiting" a person sometimes signified his coming to "bless" the individual; but here it does not seem to indicate any such thing. Zedekiah's fate was much worse than that which usually befell defeated ancient kings. They slaughtered his sons before his eyes, and then put his eyes out, and carried him to Babylon where he died (1 Kings 25:2-7).

Harrison noted that this incident and others recorded here through Jeremiah 44 all happened during the kingship of Zedekiah.[3]