Jeremiah 32:8 - Prayer Tents

Jeremiah 32

Jeremiah’s Land Purchase

32The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah

, king of Judah. This was also the eighteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.H1697H3414H3068H6224H8141H6667H4428H3063H8083H6240H8141H8141H50192Jerusalem was then under siege from the Babylonian army, and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace.H4428H894H2428H6696H3389H3414H5030H3607H2691H4307H4428H3063H10043King Zedekiah had put him there, asking why he kept giving this prophecy: “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it.H6667H4428H3063H3607H559H5012H559H559H3068H5414H5892H3027H4428H894H39204King Zedekiah will be captured by the Babylonians

and taken to meet the king of Babylon face to face.H6667H4428H3063H4422H3027H3778H5414H5414H3027H4428H894H1696H6310H6310H5869H7200H58695He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and I will deal with him there,’ says the Lord. ‘If you fight against the Babylonians, you will never succeed.’”H3212H6667H894H6485H5002H3068H3898H3778H67436At that time the Lord sent me a message. He said,H3414H559H1697H3068H5597“Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’”H2601H1121H7967H1730H935H559H7069H7704H6068H4941H1353H70698Then, just as the Lord had said he would, my cousin Hanamel came and visited me in the prison. He said, “Please buy my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else, so buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that the message I had heard was from the Lord.H2601H1730H1121H935H2691H4307H1697H3068H559H7069H7704H6068H776H1144H4941H3425H1353H7069H3045H1697H30689So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces

of silver for it.H7069H7704H2601H1730H1121H6068H8254H3701H7651H6235H8255H370110I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver, and paid him.H3789H5612H2856H5749H5707H8254H3701H397611Then I took the sealed deed and an unsealed copy of the deed, which contained the terms and conditions of the purchase,H3947H5612H4736H2856H4687H2706H154012and I handed them to Baruch son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I did all this in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed, and all the men of Judah who were there in the courtyard of the guardhouse.H5414H5612H4736H1263H1121H5374H1121H4271H5869H2601H1730H5869H5707H3789H5612H4736H5869H3064H3427H2691H430713Then I said to Baruch as they all listened,H6680H1263H5869H55914“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy, and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.’H559H3068H6635H430H3478H3947H5612H5612H4736H2856H5612H1540H5414H2789H3627H5975H7227H311715For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’”H559H3068H6635H430H3478H1004H7704H3754H7069H776

Jeremiah’s Prayer

16Then after I had given the papers to Baruch, I prayed to the Lord.H310H5414H5612H4736H1263H1121H5374H6419H3068H55917“O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!H162H136H3069H6213H8064H776H1419H3581H5186H2220H1697H638118You show unfailing love to thousands, but you also bring the consequences of one generation’s sin upon the next. You are the great and powerful God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.H6213H2617H505H7999H5771H1H2436H1121H310H1419H1368H410H3068H6635H803419You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles. You see the conduct of all people, and you give them what they deserve.H1419H6098H7227H5950H5869H6491H1870H1121H120H5414H376H1870H6529H461120You performed miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt—things still remembered to this day! And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world. You have made your name famous to this day.H7760H226H4159H776H4714H3117H3478H120H6213H8034H311721“You brought Israel out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders, with a strong hand and powerful arm, and with overwhelming terror.H3318H5971H3478H776H4714H226H4159H2389H3027H5186H248H1419H417222You gave the people of Israel this land that you had promised their ancestors long before—a land flowing with milk and honey.H5414H776H7650H1H5414H776H2100H2461H170623Our ancestors came and conquered it and lived in it, but they refused to obey you or follow your word. They have not done anything you commanded. That is why you have sent this terrible disaster upon them.H935H3423H8085H6963H1980H8451H6213H6680H6213H7451H712224“See how the siege ramps have been built against the city walls! Through war, famine, and disease, the city will be handed over to the Babylonians, who will conquer it. Everything has happened just as you said.H5550H935H5892H3920H5892H5414H3027H3778H3898H6440H2719H7458H1698H1696H720025And yet, O Sovereign Lord, you have told me to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even though the city will soon be handed over to the Babylonians.”H559H136H3069H7069H7704H3701H5749H5707H5892H5414H3027H3778

A Prediction of Jerusalem’s Fall

26Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord:H1697H3068H3414H55927“I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?H3068H430H1320H1697H638128Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will hand this city over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will capture it.H559H3068H5414H5892H3027H3778H3027H5019H4428H894H392029The Babylonians outside the walls will come in and set fire to the city. They will burn down all these houses where the people provoked my anger by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out liquid offerings to other gods.H3778H3898H5892H935H3341H784H5892H8313H1004H1406H6999H1168H5258H5262H312H430H370730Israel and Judah have done nothing but wrong since their earliest days. They have infuriated me with all their evil deeds,” says the Lord.H1121H3478H1121H3063H6213H7451H5869H5271H1121H3478H3707H4639H3027H5002H306831“From the time this city was built until now, it has done nothing but anger me, so I am determined to get rid of it.H5892H639H2534H3117H1129H3117H5493H644032“The sins of Israel and Judah—the sins of the people of Jerusalem, the kings, the officials, the priests, and the prophets—have stirred up my anger.H7451H1121H3478H1121H3063H6213H3707H4428H8269H3548H5030H376H3063H3427H338933My people have turned their backs on me and have refused to return. Even though I diligently taught them, they would not receive instruction or obey.H6437H6203H6440H3925H7925H3925H8085H3947H414834They have set up their abominable idols right in my own Temple, defiling it.H7760H8251H1004H7121H8034H293035They have built pagan shrines to Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing. What an incredible evil, causing Judah to sin so greatly!H1129H1116H1168H1516H1121H2011H1121H1323H5674H4432H6680H5927H3820H6213H8441H3063H2398

A Promise of Restoration

36“Now I want to say something more about this city. You have been saying, ‘It will fall to the king of Babylon through war, famine, and disease.’ But this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:H559H3068H430H3478H5892H559H5414H3027H4428H894H2719H7458H169837I will certainly bring my people back again from all the countries where I will scatter them in my fury. I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety.H6908H776H5080H639H2534H1419H7110H7725H4725H3427H98338They will be my people, and I will be their God.H5971H43039And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants.H5414H259H3820H259H1870H3372H3117H2896H1121H31040And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me.H3772H5769H1285H7725H310H3190H5414H3374H3824H549341I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.H7797H2895H5193H776H571H3820H531542“This is what the Lord says: Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them.H559H3068H935H1419H7451H5971H935H2896H169643Fields will again be bought and sold in this land about which you now say, ‘It has been ravaged by the Babylonians, a desolate land where people and animals have all disappeared.’H7704H7069H776H559H8077H120H929H5414H3027H377844Yes, fields will once again be bought and sold—deeds signed and sealed and witnessed—in the land of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the hill country, in the foothills of Judah

and in the Negev, too. For someday I will restore prosperity to them. I, the Lord, have spoken!”H7069H7704H3701H3789H5612H2856H5749H5707H776H1144H5439H3389H5892H3063H5892H2022H5892H8219H5892H5045H7622H7725H5002H3068