And You have said to me, O Lord God, “Buy the field for money, and take witnesses”!—yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ ”
Parallel translations
- WEB You have said to me, Lord Yahweh, ‘Buy the field for money, and call witnesses;’ whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”
- KJV And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
- BSB Yet You, O Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Buy for yourself the field with silver and call in witnesses, even though the city has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans!’”
- NASB Yet You have said to me, Lord God, “Buy for yourself the field with money and call in witnesses”—although the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans.’ ”
- NLT And yet, O Sovereign Lord, you have told me to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even though the city will soon be handed over to the Babylonians.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jeremiah lays his perplexity before God: he was told to buy a field even as the city is being handed to Babylon. It voices honest faith wrestling with a hard command.
Overview
The prophet candidly names the apparent contradiction between God's command to invest in the land and the imminent loss of that land. His prayer models bringing genuine bewilderment to God rather than abandoning obedience or faith. God welcomes such honest wrestling, and His answer in the following verses reaffirms that His promises stand even when circumstances seem to deny them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Jer 32:24“Behold, the mounds, they have come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you have spoken has happened; and behold, you see it.
- Ps 77:19Your way was through the sea; your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.
- Ps 97:2Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
- Rom 11:33–34Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- John 13:7Jesus answered him, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 32:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.