Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 278
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IMMERSE
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PROPHETS
32:1-19
Gate—will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be captured
or destroyed.”
The 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. Jerusalem was then under siege from
the Babylonian army, and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the
guard in the royal palace. King 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. King Zed
ekiah will be captured by the Babylonians and taken to meet the king of
Babylon face to face. He 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.’”
At that time the Lord sent me a message. He said, “Your cousin Hana
mel 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.’”
Then, 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.
So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces
of silver for it. I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses,
weighed out the silver, and paid him. Then I took the sealed deed and an
unsealed copy of the deed, which contained the terms and conditions of
the purchase, and I handed them to Baruch son of Neriah and grandson
of Mahseiah. I did all this in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the wit
nesses who had signed the deed, and all the men of Judah who were there
in the courtyard of the guardhouse.
Then I said to Baruch as they all listened, “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.’ For 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.’”
Then after I had given the papers to Baruch, I prayed to the Lord:
“O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong
hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you! You show
