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Jewish Publication Society Bible: Jeremiah: Jeremiah Chapter 32

Book of ChroniclesHebrew Bible TranslationJewish Publication Society Bible

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This is a chapter from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Jeremiah, a prophetic text in the tradition of ancient Israelite prophecy, set during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem (circa 587 BCE). The narrative centers on a paradoxical symbolic act: while imprisoned for predicting Jerusalem's fall, Jeremiah is commanded by God to purchase a field in Anathoth from his cousin — a legally formal transaction complete with deeds, witnesses, and sealed documents — as a enacted prophecy of future restoration. Jeremiah's subsequent prayer acknowledges both God's omnipotence and the justice of the impending destruction, citing Israel's long history of idolatry (including child sacrifice to Molech) as the cause of the catastrophe. The chapter's distinctive theological move is its dialectic of judgment and hope: God confirms the city *will* fall and burn, then immediately promises to regather the exiles, establish an everlasting covenant, and transform their hearts so they will not again turn away. The field purchase thus functions as a physical guarantee — deliberately absurd in the moment of siege — that normal economic life will resume in the land. The chapter is notable for grounding eschatological hope not in visions or heavenly scenes but in a mundane real-estate transaction as prophetic theater.

Jewish Publication Society Bible: Jeremiah: Jeremiah Chapter 32

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