Introduction: Prophecy Under Siege
Chapter 32 of Yirmiyahu opens with a prophecy given to Yirmiyahu in the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu, which was the eighteenth year of Nevuchadretzar. Even before the prophet reveals the prophecy's content (which is the command to buy the field of Chanamel), he prefaces it by describing the historical background: the siege of Jerusalem and Yirmiyahu's imprisonment in the court of the guard. This introduction is not incidental - it is intended to magnify the wonder: at the very hour when the army of the king of Babylon is besieging the city and everything is on the verge of being conquered, the Holy One, Blessed be He, commands His prophet to buy a field in Eretz Yisrael. It was an astonishing directive that would ultimately move Yirmiyahu himself to question and pray.
הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר־הָיָה אֶל־יִרְמְיָהוּ מֵאֵת ה' בַּשָּׁנָה הָעֲשִׂרִית לְצִדְקִיָּהוּ מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה, הִיא הַשָּׁנָה שְׁמֹנֶה־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה לִנְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּר. - The word that came to Yirmiyahu from Hashem in the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah, which was the eighteenth year of Nevuchadretzar.
וְאָז חֵיל מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל צָרִים עַל־יְרוּשָׁלִָם, וְיִרְמְיָהוּ הַנָּבִיא הָיָה כָלוּא בַּחֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה אֲשֶׁר בֵּית־מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה. - For then the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem, and Yirmiyahu the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Yehudah.
What Was the Court of the Guard?
The "court of the guard" (chatzer hamatarah) was a secured compound, a kind of prison. The word "matarah" derives from netirah - guarding, as in "nokem venoter," one who guards a grudge. Similarly, "naturei karta" means the guardians of the city. In this connection, the Gemara recounts the episode of a man who was asked to show the city's guardians, and he pointed to the soldiers and defenders. They said to him: Are these the guardians of the city? These are the destroyers of the city (charuvei karta). The true guardians of the city are the Torah scholars.
אֲשֶׁר כְּלָאוֹ צִדְקִיָּהוּ מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה לֵאמֹר: מַדּוּעַ אַתָּה נִבָּא לֵאמֹר, כֹּה אָמַר ה' הִנְנִי נֹתֵן אֶת־הָעִיר הַזֹּאת בְּיַד מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל וּלְכָדָהּ. - Where Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah had shut him up, saying: Why do you prophesy, saying, Thus says Hashem: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it;
וְצִדְקִיָּהוּ מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה לֹא יִמָּלֵט מִיַּד הַכַּשְׂדִּים, כִּי הִנָּתֹן יִנָּתֵן בְּיַד מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶל, וְדִבֶּר־פִּיו עִם־פִּיו וְעֵינָיו אֶת־עֵינָו תִּרְאֶינָה. - And Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah shall not escape out of the hand of the Kasdim, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes;
וּבָבֶל יוֹלִךְ אֶת־צִדְקִיָּהוּ וְשָׁם יִהְיֶה עַד־פׇּקְדִי אֹתוֹ נְאֻם־ה', כִּי תִלָּחֲמוּ אֶת־הַכַּשְׂדִּים לֹא תַצְלִיחוּ. - And he shall lead Tzidkiyahu to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, says Hashem; though you fight with the Kasdim, you shall not succeed.
Why Yirmiyahu Was Imprisoned
The verse explains how Yirmiyahu ended up in the court of the guard: his prophecies displeased Tzidkiyahu, who challenged him - why do you prophesy that the city will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and why do you prophesy that I myself will not survive? Tzidkiyahu was confident that he personally would escape, as he had prepared an escape tunnel leading all the way to Jericho (tyrants of our generation were not the only ones with tunnels). But Yirmiyahu came and told him: even the tunnel will not help; "he shall not escape out of the hand of the Kasdim."
And so it was. Tzidkiyahu entered the tunnel and fled, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, dispatched a deer in front of the Kasdim. They pursued it until they arrived directly at the tunnel's exit, and there Tzidkiyahu emerged right into their hands like ripe fruit. The deer brought them straight there, and the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.
The Malbim notes the precise details of the prophecy: First, "he shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon" - the Chaldeans will not kill him, but rather hand him over to Nevuchadnezzar, who hated him (because of the oath he violated, as will be explained later). "And his mouth shall speak with his mouth" - this refers to the trial he will conduct against him for violating the oath, and the agony of a trial is worse than death. "And his eyes shall behold his eyes" - an allusion that they would gouge out his eyes: you will see Nevuchadnezzar's eyes alone, and nothing more; Babylon itself you will not live to see.
"And he shall lead Tzidkiyahu to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him" - what is this "visitation"? This refers to the day of death, as in the phrase "or if the visitation of all men be visited upon them," when the Holy One, blessed be He, calls a person and takes him to Himself. In other words: he will remain there until the day of his passing. And that is not all, but "though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper" - Yirmiyahu also weakens the hands of the warriors and instills fear in their hearts.
Silencing the Prophet
What king would tolerate such a prophet walking around his country, constantly telling the people to surrender, that the campaign is finished, that there is no chance against the king of Babylon, and that the king himself will fall into his hands and have his eyes blinded? Such words are hard to stomach. So what does Tzidkiyahu do? He imprisons Yirmiyahu so that he will not continue speaking harsh words to the people, and that way, the festivities can go on.
And history repeats itself. When rabbis say things that are unpleasant for the media to hear, it "imprisons" them: it refuses to broadcast them and suppresses their message. For example, Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak went unmentioned in the media for many years. At first they tried writing negative stories about him, but he sued those newspapers, won the lawsuits, proved they had published complete fabrications, and was even awarded damages. When they saw this was ineffective - since every word became publicity and another recording was released in its wake - they decided: ignore him, we haven't heard, we haven't seen. He held massive conventions in Yad Eliyahu and Teddy Stadium with tens of thousands of people, and what did they report? "There are traffic jams in the city." Why traffic jams? They did not tell their audience. This is precisely the same behavior: when they do not want to hear, they silence, believing that will be the end of the story. And if they could throw them into prison, they would.
And this was indeed the original plan: Herzl wrote in his book The Jewish State that rabbis should be confined to barracks, a kind of enclaves, like ghettos. Ben-Gurion preserved Meah Shearim so future generations could see what Jews once looked like. He did not know that at his own gravesite they would not even be able to gather a minyan. And Baruch Hashem, today the majority of Jews in Jerusalem are observant, and observant Jews continue to multiply, while those who intended to confine the rabbis suddenly find that "all of Israel was waiting for the Jew," and their own generation is fading away.
Tzidkiyahu thought that if he silenced Yirmiyahu, the prophecy would not come to pass.
Returning to the Prophecy Itself
וַיֹּאמֶר יִרְמְיָהוּ: הָיָה דְבַר־ה' אֵלַי לֵאמֹר. - And Yirmiyahu said: The word of Hashem came to me, saying.
Everything stated so far was an introduction: Yirmiyahu receives a prophecy in the prison courtyard, where he is held because Tzidkiyahu imprisoned him, having imprisoned him for speaking unpleasant truths. Now the text returns to the beginning: a prophecy came to Yirmiyahu - and now let us hear its content.
הִנֵּה חֲנַמְאֵל בֶּן־שַׁלֻּם דֹּדְךָ בָּא אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר: קְנֵה לְךָ אֶת־שָׂדִי אֲשֶׁר בַּעֲנָתוֹת, כִּי לְךָ מִשְׁפַּט הַגְּאֻלָּה לִקְנוֹת. - Behold, Chanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying: Buy my field that is in Anatot, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.
The Holy One, blessed be He, informs Yirmiyahu that Chanamel, the son of his uncle Shallum, will come to him and ask him to buy his field in Anatot - which was Yirmiyahu's hometown, "of the kohanim who were in Anatot." "For the right of redemption is yours to buy it": their custom was that the closest relative had the first right to purchase the field, so that property would remain within the family. This is just as we saw with Boaz, who told the redeemer: If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if not, I will redeem it, since he was the closer relative. The reason for this is that the field returns to the relative in the Yovel (Jubilee) year anyway, so why should it pass to a stranger in the meantime? And if the closest relative does not wish to redeem it, another redeems it, or it is sold to someone else - but the right of first refusal belongs to the closest relative.
וַיָּבֹא אֵלַי חֲנַמְאֵל בֶּן־דֹּדִי כִּדְבַר ה' אֶל־חֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי: קְנֵה נָא אֶת־שָׂדִי אֲשֶׁר־בַּעֲנָתוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּאֶרֶץ בִּנְיָמִין, כִּי־לְךָ מִשְׁפַּט הַיְרֻשָּׁה וּלְךָ הַגְּאֻלָּה קְנֵה־לָךְ, וָאֵדַע כִּי דְבַר־ה' הוּא. - "And Chanamel my uncle's son came to me according to the word of Hashem into the courtyard of the guard, and said to me: 'Please buy my field which is in Anatot, which is in the land of Binyamin, 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 Hashem."
"Then I knew that it was the word of Hashem" - Could he have been in doubt?
According to the simple reading of the verse, this is astonishing: it sounds as though until Chanamel arrived and the events unfolded, there was room for doubt whether this was indeed the word of Hashem or not, and only now did he "know that it was the word of Hashem." But we hold an established principle, affirmed by all the Rishonim: a prophet has no doubt when the word of Hashem comes to him that it is indeed the word of Hashem. It is inconceivable that a prophet would wonder whether it was merely a dream - even though prophecy often comes in a dream.
The conclusive proof of this is the Binding of Yitzchak (Akeidat Yitzchak). If one could imagine that there was the slightest shadow of doubt that perhaps this was not the word of Hashem but merely an ordinary dream, how could Avraham Avinu go, bind his son, and be prepared to slaughter him? Would a person kill his son based on a mere dream? From here we see that a prophet harbors no doubt whatsoever whether the word of Hashem came to him. (This matter is explained at length in the sefer "Mishnat HaChalomot".)
As for what we find with Yaakov Avinu, "Surely Hashem is in this place, and I did not know," and similarly with Shmuel, who initially did not know that it was the voice of Hashem - Rav Dessler resolves this: only on a prophet's very first experience can there be uncertainty, as he is not yet accustomed to prophecy. But once Hashem has revealed Himself to him even once, no doubt ever crosses the prophet's mind as to whether it was a dream or prophecy. If so, how could Yirmiyahu say: When I saw that Chanamel came, I realized that it was indeed the word of Hashem?
The Malbim's Explanation: The Uncertainty Lay in Interpreting the Command
The Malbim explains: it does not mean that Yirmiyahu doubted his prophecy. The prophet had no doubt at all that it was the word of Hashem. The doubt was entirely different: the phrasing of the prophecy could be understood in two ways. For the entire prophecy had been: "Behold, Chanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying: 'Buy for yourself my field that is in Anatot, for the right of redemption is yours to buy.'" Is there an actual command here to Yirmiyahu to buy? Not necessarily. It is possible that the entire sentence was a quotation of what Chanamel would say, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, was merely informing him of what was about to happen - in which case there was no obligation to purchase it. Alternatively, it is possible that the words "for the right of redemption is yours to buy" were Hashem's own words, an outright command to purchase the field. That was Yirmiyahu's question: to buy or not to buy.
And how did he determine the matter? Yirmiyahu reasoned: I will pay close attention to Chanamel's exact words. If he speaks to me in the precise wording that the Holy One, Blessed be He, told me - "for the right of redemption is yours to buy" - it is a sign that Hashem was quoting him, and the entire prophecy was merely a notification of future events, so I am not commanded to buy. But if he expresses it in different words, it proves that this was not a quotation, but Hashem's own statement - and therefore, "the right of redemption is yours to buy" is a divine command.
And indeed, Chanamel phrased it quite differently: "Please buy my field which is in Anatot, which is in the land of Binyamin, for the right of inheritance is yours and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself." He added "the land of Binyamin," added "the right of inheritance," and said "buy it for yourself" rather than "the right of redemption is yours to buy." Had the Holy One, Blessed be He, been quoting Chanamel, the quotation would have been exact, for He knows precisely what Chanamel was going to say. From this, Yirmiyahu understood: "Then I knew that it was the word of Hashem" - meaning, the command to buy was the word of Hashem, not merely the words of Chanamel.
וָאֶקְנֶה אֶת־הַשָּׂדֶה מֵאֵת חֲנַמְאֵל בֶּן־דֹּדִי אֲשֶׁר בַּעֲנָתוֹת, וָאֶשְׁקְלָה־לּוֹ אֶת־הַכֶּסֶף שִׁבְעָה שְׁקָלִים וַעֲשָׂרָה הַכָּסֶף. - "And I bought the field from Chanamel my uncle's son that was in Anatot, and I weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver."
וָאֶכְתֹּב בַּסֵּפֶר וָאֶחְתֹּם וָאָעֵד עֵדִים, וָאֶשְׁקֹל הַכֶּסֶף בְּמֹאזְנָיִם. - "And I wrote in the deed and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales."
A Meticulous Acquisition at the Most Unlikely Time
Seemingly, this purchase contradicted everything Yirmiyahu had been commanded up to this point. To the exiles in Babylon, he was commanded to say that they should settle down there, take wives, bear sons, marry off their children, and plant vineyards, for seventy years remained and they should not believe those who say they are about to leave. And to those who remained here, he said: Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Suddenly, the opposite command arrives: Go buy a field. Shall I buy fields in a land that is about to become desolate? Yirmiyahu will ask this question explicitly later on - but in the meantime, he fulfills the command.
And how did he purchase it? Through all the formal modes of acquisition (kinyanim): through kinyan kesef (monetary acquisition) - "And I weighed out the money for him," and it was a substantial sum, seventeen shekels of silver, and Chazal noted that these were manehs, valuable silver; through kinyan shtar (documentary acquisition) - "And I wrote in the deed" (sefer means a deed, a scroll, meaning a contract) "and sealed it"; and he further added witnesses: "And I called witnesses, and weighed out the money on the scales" - so that there would be witnesses to the actual handing over of the money as well.
וָאֶקַּח אֶת־סֵפֶר הַמִּקְנָה, אֶת־הֶחָתוּם הַמִּצְוָה וְהַחֻקִּים וְאֶת־הַגָּלוּי. - And I took the deed of purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the commandment and decrees, and that which was open.
The Sealed Deed and the Open Deed
"The deed of purchase" (sefer hamiknah) is the bill of sale, the contract stating that so-and-so purchased a field from so-and-so. And what is the sealed deed and what is the open one? The Malbim explains: It was their practice to write a copy, known as the "sealed deed," which was signed, tied up, and deposited for safekeeping. In contrast, the "open deed" was the original held by the buyer, which he could show to anyone to prove he had bought the land without needing to unseal the sealed copy each time. If any doubts arose regarding the open copy, or if a claimant appeared, they would turn to the sealed one, which served as the official backup.
And what are "the commandment and decrees" that were bound with the sealed deed? "The commandment" refers to the stipulations: the payment of money, the law of returning the land at the Yovel (Jubilee), and how many crop years were being sold until the Yovel. "The decrees" refers to the laws of the land, for every kingdom has procedures governing how land transactions are conducted. All of these were sealed and bundled together with the deed of purchase.
Rashi interprets "the open deed" differently: it refers to rabbinic judicial certification (asharta dedayaneh), by which every legal deed received judicial validation through kiyum shtar (verification of signatures). One would appear before the beit din, and the court would authenticate the signatures and write: "This deed came before us... and we have validated and confirmed it as is fitting." How are the signatures verified? There are three ways: by comparing them to older deeds held by the beit din bearing the signatures of those same witnesses, placing them side by side to see if the signatures match; or by summoning the witnesses themselves and asking them if this is their handwriting; or through individuals who know the witnesses' signatures and recognize them from personal knowledge (rather than comparison), and this too is considered valid verification of a deed as practiced in the beit din.
וָאֶתֵּן אֶת־הַסֵּפֶר הַמִּקְנָה אֶל־בָּרוּךְ בֶּן־נֵרִיָּה בֶּן־מַחְסֵיָה, לְעֵינֵי חֲנַמְאֵל דֹּדִי וּלְעֵינֵי הָעֵדִים הַכֹּתְבִים בְּסֵפֶר הַמִּקְנָה, לְעֵינֵי כׇּל־הַיְּהוּדִים הַיֹּשְׁבִים בַּחֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה. - And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriyah, the son of Machseyah, in the sight of Chanamel my uncle, and in the sight of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of purchase, before all the Judeans who sat in the court of the guard.
Why Specifically Baruch ben Neriyah?
Baruch ben Neriyah ben Machseyah was still young and lived long after Yirmiyahu - he was still alive when they returned from Babylon after seventy years. Therefore, Yirmiyahu entrusted the deed to him: he wanted a person of great longevity who would be able to present the deed to the returning exiles and tell them that their forebears had purchased this land. Not merely a document found by chance in a genizah (archive), but a living witness who could declare: "I was there, I saw the acquisition, and I testify to it."
Chanamel - His Cousin or His Uncle?
In verse 7 it states "Chanamel the son of Shallum your uncle," and in verse 9 "Chanamel my uncle's son," yet here it suddenly says "Chanamel my uncle." Rashi writes: I do not know what this means. Some say there were two individuals - Chanamel the uncle and Chanamel the cousin. Others are inclined to suggest that this same Chanamel was both his uncle and his cousin (his mother's brother), but Rashi rejects this, since throughout Scripture "dod" refers to a paternal uncle, and we never find that a maternal uncle is called a "dod"; a mother's brother was referred to as "my mother's brother" (achi imi). For the term "dod" applies when the lineage is the same, whereas a maternal brother does not share the same lineage, since lineage follows the father.
Radak explains that "my uncle" means "my cousin" (the son of my uncle), just as "Lot his brother" means "his nephew" (the son of his brother). The Malbim elaborates: in reality he was his cousin, and he is called here "my uncle" because he came to sell the field by the power of his father - Chanamel is the heir of his father Shallum, and if you were to ask Chanamel where he got the field, he would say: from my father Shallum, who is Yirmiyahu's uncle. Therefore, he is referred to according to the right by which he comes. This also explains the case of Lot: because Lot, as the heir of Avraham's brother, stands in the place of Avraham's brother, he is called "his brother," even though he was his nephew.
וָאֲצַוֶּה אֶת־בָּרוּךְ לְעֵינֵיהֶם לֵאמֹר: כֹּה־אָמַר ה' צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, לָקוֹחַ אֶת־הַסְּפָרִים הָאֵלֶּה, אֵת סֵפֶר הַמִּקְנָה הַזֶּה וְאֵת הֶחָתוּם וְאֵת סֵפֶר הַגָּלוּי הַזֶּה, וּנְתַתָּם בִּכְלִי־חָרֶשׂ לְמַעַן יַעַמְדוּ יָמִים רַבִּים. - "And I commanded Baruch before their eyes, saying: Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deed of purchase, both the sealed one and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, so that they may endure for many days."
Yirmiyahu commands Baruch in the name of Hashem: Take the two deeds, the open one and the sealed one, and place them in an earthenware vessel so that they will endure for many days. This is similarly how we bury worn-out Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezuzot - in earthenware vessels, "so that they may endure for many days." Today, genizah is buried in plastic containers, which endure even longer than earthenware, lasting a thousand years in the ground. And although rats can chew through plastic as well, they bury them at such a depth - four meters rather than twenty centimeters - where rats have no access.
כִּי כֹה אָמַר ה' צְבָאוֹת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: עוֹד יִקָּנוּ בָתִּים וְשָׂדוֹת וּכְרָמִים בָּאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת. - "For thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Houses, fields, and vineyards shall yet be bought in this land."
Here the underlying reason is revealed: do not think that this man threw his money away on a hopeless venture, buying a field in Eretz Yisrael just moments before exile. On the contrary, this contains a sign and a prophecy - "Houses, fields, and vineyards shall yet be bought in this land." The land will not be permanently lost, and ultimately the Jewish people will return to it.
וָאֶתְפַּלֵּל אֶל־ה' אַחֲרֵי תִתִּי אֶת־סֵפֶר הַמִּקְנָה אֶל־בָּרוּךְ בֶּן־נֵרִיָּה לֵאמֹר. - "And I prayed to Hashem after I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, saying:"
First Na'aseh, and Then Nishma
Why does Yirmiyahu emphasize "after I had delivered the deed of purchase"? Because had he prayed and raised questions beforehand, there would have been room to suspect that he did so out of stinginess, that he was reluctant to spend money on a field about to be conquered by the Chaldeans, and that his questions stemmed from concern for his pocket. Therefore, Yirmiyahu says: first and foremost, I fulfilled Hashem's command - I purchased the field, spent the money, disregarding the cost, and did not make financial calculations against the Creator's command. This is "na'aseh" (we will do). Only afterward came "nishma" (we will hear) - it is permissible to ask, permissible to seek understanding. But first of all: we do.
אֲהָהּ אֲדֹנָי ה', הִנֵּה אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ אֶת־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת־הָאָרֶץ בְּכֹחֲךָ הַגָּדוֹל וּבִזְרֹעֲךָ הַנְּטוּיָה, לֹא־יִפָּלֵא מִמְּךָ כׇּל־דָּבָר. - "Ah, Lord Hashem! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm; nothing is too wondrous for You."
The Malbim explains that the expression "Ah" (ahah) is an expression of wailing and outcry, signifying distress and anxiety. Yirmiyahu was bewildered: he did not understand the underlying purpose of the Creator's command or its meaning, and this caused him anguish. Yet he begins with praise: Master of the Universe, You made heaven and earth with Your great power, and nothing is beyond Your ability or hidden from You.
עֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד לַאֲלָפִים וּמְשַׁלֵּם עֲוֺן אָבוֹת אֶל־חֵיק בְּנֵיהֶם אַחֲרֵיהֶם, הָאֵל הַגָּדוֹל הַגִּבּוֹר ה' צְבָאוֹת שְׁמוֹ. - "Who shows kindness to thousands, and repays the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great and mighty God, the Lord of Hosts is His Name."
גְּדֹל הָעֵצָה וְרַב הָעֲלִילִיָּה, אֲשֶׁר־עֵינֶיךָ פְקֻחוֹת עַל־כׇּל־דַּרְכֵי בְּנֵי אָדָם, לָתֵת לְאִישׁ כִּדְרָכָיו וְכִפְרִי מַעֲלָלָיו. - "Great in counsel and mighty in deed, Whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give to each man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds."
אֲשֶׁר־שַׂמְתָּ אֹתוֹת וּמֹפְתִים בְּאֶרֶץ־מִצְרַיִם עַד־הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה וּבְיִשְׂרָאֵל וּבָאָדָם, וַתַּעֲשֶׂה־לְּךָ שֵׁם כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה. - Who set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt until this day, both in Israel and among mankind, and You made for Yourself a name, as at this day.
וַתֹּצֵא אֶת־עַמְּךָ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם בְּאֹתוֹת וּבְמוֹפְתִים וּבְיָד חֲזָקָה וּבְאֶזְרוֹעַ נְטוּיָה וּבְמוֹרָא גָּדוֹל. - And You brought forth Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror.
וַתִּתֵּן לָהֶם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתָם לָתֵת לָהֶם, אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ. - And You gave them this land, which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
וַיָּבֹאוּ וַיִּרְשׁוּ אֹתָהּ, וְלֹא־שָׁמְעוּ בְקוֹלֶךָ וּבְתוֹרָתְךָ לֹא־הָלָכוּ, אֵת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָה לָהֶם לַעֲשׂוֹת לֹא עָשׂוּ, וַתַּקְרֵא אֹתָם אֵת כׇּל־הָרָעָה הַזֹּאת. - And they came and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice, nor did they walk in Your Torah; they did nothing of all that You commanded them to do, and You caused all this calamity to befall them.
הִנֵּה הַסֹּלְלוֹת בָּאוּ הָעִיר לְלׇכְדָהּ, וְהָעִיר נִתְּנָה בְּיַד הַכַּשְׂדִּים הַנִּלְחָמִים עָלֶיהָ מִפְּנֵי הַחֶרֶב וְהָרָעָב וְהַדָּבֶר, וַאֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתָּ הָיָה וְהִנְּךָ רֹאֶה. - Behold, the siege mounds 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; and what You have spoken has come to pass, and behold, You see it.
וְאַתָּה אָמַרְתָּ אֵלַי אֲדֹנָי ה': קְנֵה־לְךָ הַשָּׂדֶה בַּכֶּסֶף וְהָעֵד עֵדִים, וְהָעִיר נִתְּנָה בְּיַד הַכַּשְׂדִּים. - Yet You said to me, my Lord, Hashem: 'Buy for yourself the field with money and summon witnesses' - while the city is being given into the hand of the Chaldeans!
This is the crux of Yirmiyahu's perplexity and question: Everything You spoke of is being fulfilled before our eyes; the siege mounds have already closed in on the city, and the city is falling into the hands of the Chaldeans - how then can You command me to buy a field with money and summon witnesses? Surely this contradicts all the prior prophecies, in which I was commanded to tell the people that the land would be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans! Why should I buy a field in a place that will shortly be handed over to the enemy?
In summary: The chapter opens by setting the background - the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu, the siege of Jerusalem, and Yirmiyahu's imprisonment in the courtyard of the guard due to his harsh prophecies regarding the fall of the city and the fate of Tzidkiyahu. These prophecies were fulfilled with precision: the tunnel did not avail him, the deer led the Chaldeans straight to its exit, and he saw Nevuchadnezzar's eyes and nothing more. Silencing the messenger did not void the prophecy, just as silencing words of truth in any generation never invalidates them. In the midst of the siege came the command to purchase the field of Chanamel in Anatot. Yirmiyahu's doubt was not about the prophecy itself (about which a prophet harbors no doubt), but rather about its interpretation, which was resolved by examining the exact wording used by Chanamel. Yirmiyahu acquired it through every formal mode of kinyan, entrusted the deeds to Baruch ben Neriyah - who would live to see the return to Zion - and instructed that they be preserved in an earthenware vessel, for this is the great sign: "Houses, fields, and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land." Only after fulfilling the command - acting first with *na'aseh venishma* - did he turn in prayer to ask about the meaning of the matter, a question whose answer will come later in the chapter.