And Jeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
Jeremiah sits in prison while the Babylonian army closes in on Jerusalem. Verse 6 begins a message from God about buying land — an errand He sends through the prophet's own family.
King Zedekiah had jailed Jeremiah for prophesying that the city would fall. The prison held the man:
From verse 6 we have the message itself. As an old writer remarks, if the prophet was bound, the word of God was not bound.
God announces the visit of his cousin Hanamel in advance. When the man turns up with that very request, Jeremiah knows who is behind it — "Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD" (v. 8).
The Lord had first told the prophet to buy the field, and then Hanamel came to offer his field for sale.
The offer was not simply family business. It fell under Israel's law of redemption:
God announced in advance that his cousin would come and ask him to buy his field in Anathoth. The right of redemption was Jeremiah's. (See Leviticus 25:25.) Hanamel came, and Jeremiah, realising that it was of the Lord, bought the field, paying for it seventeen shekels of silver. The sale was done legally and properly, with two scrolls, one sealed and the other open. Everything went to Baruch, the prophet's faithful secretary, who was told to put it all in a clay jar. By this action the prophet proved his simple faith in the promised return.
Commentators draw a wider principle out of it:
Redemption is the exercise of a right that already exists, an existing claim on the thing redeemed or to be redeemed. The redeemer, whether God or man, holds the authority to exercise that right. You can see this principle beautifully illustrated in the book of Ruth, and in Jeremiah 32:6-15. In each case there was someone with a right to redeem.
Everything about the timing argued against the deal:
The city was about to be captured... What a time to buy a field! The city certain to be taken, the prophet himself in prison! By his own word, there was no escape from the Babylonian army. And there was no escape from the hostile power of those who ruled in Jerusalem, for his testimony was dead against their pride and their false patriotism.
Preaching a future is one thing. Paying for it is another:
In all this there was a beautiful message of grace. God would put an end to the dominion of the Gentiles. A time of blessing would come. Land would be bought and sold again. Jeremiah had spoken about the new covenant (31:31-40). He had spoken of how God would act with His people in grace, in a day that is still future, after a remnant of the people repents. Now God puts him to the test by making him buy the land. If Jeremiah believed his own prophecy he should act on it and put his money where his mouth was, and he did.
The field became public evidence that God meant what He had said:
The purchase was a testimony of the greatest value. It showed that despite the ruin, despite the destruction of the city, Jeremiah believed the Jews would return to their possessions, and that people would still farm the land and build houses there.
Commentators see more than history here. Boaz, the redeeming relative in the book of Ruth, stands beside Jeremiah:
In Boaz and Jeremiah we see what a kinsman does. The bright, wonderful and perfect ways of the Son of Man outdo and outshine them. Like a more self-sacrificing Boaz, at a price that cost Him everything, He has rescued more than a childless, penniless relative. He has rescued one who was guilty and ruined and sold into shameful captivity. And like a better Jeremiah, He has now waited a long time, through an age of bitter rejection, for the inheritance which He purchased with His own blood on the day of Calvary.
- Word — The prophet was shut in, but the message was not. Verse 6 begins God's word to a prisoner.
- Warning — God names the visitor and the errand in advance. So when Hanamel arrives, Jeremiah knows whose word it is.
- Right — The claim on the field was already Jeremiah's. Redemption means acting on a right you already hold.
- Risk — He weighs out silver for land about to be overrun. Faith that preaches a future has to pay for it.
- Reach — The sealed deed, kept in a clay jar, said that people would farm and build here again. It points on to a Kinsman who paid at Calvary and still waits for His inheritance.
Behold, Hanameel, the son of Shallum thine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, Buy for thyself my field which is in Anathoth; for thine is the right of redemption, to buy [it].
Jeremiah hears this word in prison, while Babylon's army camps around Jerusalem and the city's fall is certain. God tells him in advance that his cousin will arrive with a sales offer — and that the right to redeem the land is his.
The instruction comes at the darkest possible moment, and that is the point of it.
God gave these precious promises at a moment marked by the imprisonment of His prophet. Jerusalem was then under siege by the king of Babylon's army. Zedekiah tried to stop prophetic speech, God was shut out, and everything looked very black — despair and desolation faced them. At such a moment God illustrates His redemption and grace. He tells the prophet to buy the field of Hanameel, for "the right of redemption" belonged to Jeremiah. Just so it is with God — the right of redemption is His... He promises that houses and fields and vineyards will be owned again in this land (v. 15), and that in the right of redemption and according to "an everlasting covenant" (v. 40). "Man's extremity is God's opportunity!"
Buying land in a doomed country made no business sense.
The capture of the city was imminent. Yet the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, telling him that his uncle's son would come and say, "Buy my field that is at Anathoth." What a time to buy a field! The city was certain to be taken, and the prophet himself was in prison. By his own word, there was no escape from the Babylonian army. There was no escape either from the hostile power of those who ruled in Jerusalem, for his testimony was dead against their pride and their false patriotism.
The order of events is what settled the matter for Jeremiah.
"So Hanameel, my uncle's son, came to me in the court of the guard, according to the word of the LORD... Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD" (verse 8). The LORD had first told the prophet to buy the field, and then Hanameel came to offer his field for sale.
The right of redemption was not invented for this moment. It came from Israel's law on family land.
God announced beforehand that his cousin would come and ask him to buy his field in Anathoth. The right of redemption was Jeremiah's. (See Leviticus 25:25.) Hanameel came, and Jeremiah, realizing that it was of the Lord, bought the field, paying seventeen shekels of silver for it.
The law also set a limit on how long the buyer kept the land:
The rule in Leviticus 25 teaches us that an Israelite could redeem or buy back the inheritance of a poor relative from whoever had bought it. He could then hold it until the year of Jubilee. At that point, as we further learn, it was to return to the original owner.
The same crisis pulled cousin and prophet in opposite directions.
It seems Hanameel thought it was better to sell his inheritance and have money instead. Captivity was near. It showed that he valued money rather than the inheritance God had given him. Is there not a similar spirit in the Christian world today, when men are lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God? (2 Tim. 3:1-4).
Buying the field made Jeremiah's own preaching cost him something.
If Jeremiah believed his own prophecy he should act on it and "put his money where his mouth was," and he did.
The purchase also carried a message for everyone watching:
But it was the LORD who told him to do it. Buying the field was a testimony of the greatest value. Despite the desolation, despite the destruction of the city, Jeremiah believed the Jews would return to their possessions. He believed people would still farm that land and build houses there.
Writers link this purchase with Boaz in the book of Ruth. Both acted as a kinsman — a close relative — and both point to someone greater.
But there is more than this. These actions of Boaz and of Jeremiah look ahead, as pictures and patterns, to the ways of our Lord Jesus. He made Himself our Kinsman, and He has done a Kinsman's part in ways that outshine all comparisons... And like a better Jeremiah, He has waited a long season, through an age of deep rejection, for the inheritance He bought with His own blood on the day of Calvary.
- Right — by law the nearest relative could buy back family land. Jeremiah was not grabbing a bargain. He was using a claim that was already his.
- Word — God named the visitor and the offer before Hanameel arrived. That is how the prophet knew this was the Lord speaking.
- Price — seventeen shekels, paid in prison while the enemy held the land. It bought a field he could not yet enter.
- Contrast — Hanameel sold the inheritance for money; Jeremiah bought it for the promise. The same pressure shows what each man values most.
- Pattern — a relative with the right, paying the price, then waiting long to take possession. Writers see in it the outline of Christ's own redemption.