1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah; it was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was laying siege to Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the house of the king of Judah,
3 where Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, "Why are you prophesying, 'Thus says the LORD: See, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it;
4 and Zedekiah king of Judah will not get away from the hand of the Chaldeans, for he will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon, and his mouth will speak with his mouth and his eyes will see his eyes;
5 he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he will be until I attend to him, declares the LORD; though you fight the Chaldeans, you will not succeed'?"
6 And Jeremiah said, "The word of the LORD came to me:
7 'See, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you to say, "Buy for yourself my field at Anathoth, for the right of redemption to buy it belongs to you."'
8 And Hanamel my uncle's son came to me, as the LORD had said, to the court of the guard and said to me, 'Buy, please, my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is yours and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that it was the word of the LORD.
9 "So I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son and weighed out the silver to him, seventeen shekels of silver.
10 I wrote it in the deed and sealed it, called in witnesses, and weighed the silver on the scales.
11 Then I took the deed of purchase, the sealed one with the terms and the regulations, and the open one,
12 and gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, before the eyes of Hanamel my cousin, and before the eyes of the witnesses who had written in the deed of purchase, before the eyes of all the Jews sitting in the court of the guard.
13 And I commanded Baruch in front of them:
14 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these documents, this deed of purchase, both the sealed one and this open one, and place them in a clay jar so that they will last many days.
15 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses, fields and vineyards will yet be bought again in this land.'
16 "After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD:
17 'Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm; nothing is too hard for you.
18 You show steadfast love to thousands, yet you repay the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their sons after them; the great and mighty God, the LORD of hosts is his name,
19 great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give each according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds;
20 who set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among mankind, and made a name for yourself, as at this day.
21 You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror.
22 You gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
23 They came in and possessed it, but they did not listen to your voice or walk in your law; of all you commanded them to do, they did nothing. So you have made all this evil befall them.
24 Look, the siege ramps have reached the city to capture it, and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans fighting against it because of the sword, the famine and the pestilence. What you spoke has happened; see, you are watching it.
25 And yet you, Lord GOD, have said to me, "Buy the field for silver and call in witnesses," while the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'"
26 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying:
27 "See, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is any matter too hard for me?
28 So thus says the LORD: See, I am giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it.
29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come in and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs they made offerings to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods so as to provoke me.
30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil in my eyes from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me with the work of their hands, declares the LORD.
31 For this city has roused my anger and my wrath from the day they built it until this day, so that I will remove it from before my face,
32 because of all the evil the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done to provoke me, they, their kings, their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
33 They have turned to me the back and not the face; though I taught them, rising early and teaching, they did not listen to take correction.
34 They placed their vile things in the house called by my name, to make it unclean.
35 They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to Molech, a thing I did not command them, and it never came into my mind that they should do this abomination and make Judah sin.
36 "And now, therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, about this city of which you are saying, 'It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine and by pestilence':
37 See, I will gather them from all the lands where I have driven them in my anger and my fury and great indignation; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety.
38 They will be a people to me, and I will be God to them.
39 I will give them one heart and one way, to fear me always, for their own good and that of their sons after them.
40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant: I will not turn back from following them to do them good, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they do not turn away from me.
41 I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and with all my soul.
42 "For thus says the LORD: Just as I have brought on this people all this great evil, so I am bringing on them all the good I am speaking about them.
43 And the field will be bought in this land of which you say, 'It is a waste, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'
44 Fields will be bought for silver, deeds written and sealed and witnesses called, in the land of Benjamin, in the surroundings of Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, the towns of the hill country, the towns of the lowland and the towns of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes, declares the LORD."