[32:1] The Lord spoke to me in the tenth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, which was also the eighteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia.
[32:2] At that time the army of the king of Babylonia was attacking Jerusalem, and I was locked up in the courtyard of the royal palace.
[32:3] King Zedekiah had imprisoned me there and had accused me of announcing that the Lord had said, “I am going to let the king of Babylonia capture this city,
[32:4] and King Zedekiah will not escape. He will be handed over to the king of Babylonia; he will see him face-to-face and will speak to him in person.
[32:5] Zedekiah will be taken to Babylonia, and he will remain there until I deal with him. Even if he fights the Babylonians, he will not be successful. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
[32:6] The Lord told me
[32:7] that Hanamel, my uncle Shallum's son, would come to me with the request to buy his field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, because I was his nearest relative and had the right to buy it for myself.
[32:8] Then, just as the Lord had said, Hanamel came to me there in the courtyard and asked me to buy the field. So I knew that the Lord had really spoken to me.
[32:9] I bought the field from Hanamel and weighed out the money to him; the price came to seventeen pieces of silver.
[32:10] I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the money on scales.
[32:11] Then I took both copies of the deed of purchase—the sealed copy containing the contract and its conditions, and the open copy—
[32:12] and gave them to Baruch, the son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I gave them to him in the presence of Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase and of the people who were sitting in the courtyard.
[32:13] Before them all I said to Baruch,
[32:14] “The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has ordered you to take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and the open copy, and to place them in a clay jar, so that they may be preserved for years to come.
[32:15] The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”