Who buys land when the earth is about to shake? A prophet.
It’s 587 BCE. The Babylonian army surrounds Jerusalem on the 10th and last year of King Zedekiah’s reign, and the siege is fierce. Jeremiah’s warnings - I told you so - are heard and hated by the people who try to kill him but King Zedekiah intervenes and places the prophet in prison -- the safest place possible away from the public wrath. Jerusalem is barely a few months away from its destruction as Jeremiah, a royal prisoner, received a few more dramatic revelations that he shares with those who gather in the prison yard, prisoners and visitors alike. One of those visitors is Jeremiah’s cousin, visiting from their village of Anatot, as all the nearby neighboring villages and towns flock to Jerusalem for the final fight. Jeremiah knew his cousin would be coming -- he had a prior vision about that -- and yet, he is surprised, and surprised to hear what this estranged relative demands of him: Jeremiah is requested/commanded to buy their ancestral land. This is in line with the Hebraic land laws, giving Jeremiah the right of first refusal before his uncle offers it to someone else not of the family bloodline.
Why sell or buy a family plot when the enemy is about to exile everybody and the land will not be theirs anymore?
It’s possible that Jeremiah’s cousin, formerly wealthy and now on the verge of being a homeless refugee, assumes that Jeremiah may be in a slightly better position because of his Pro-Babylonian policies. And he’s right. Jeremiah will be spared. Perhaps it’s the last chance to sell the land to relatives and try to ensure it is kept in the family.
More likely, it’s for symbolic value, and for the future. The deed will one day be a proof that this land was theirs, and no matter what - still is. This reminds one of the large iron keys hung up on walls all over the world, in the homes of Palestinian refugees, holding on to their hopes of coming home since their exile from the new state of Israel in 1948. Some of the next generations still holds on to the keys and to the hopes of return.
This chapter of impending exile ends with a declaration that makes it clear - this surreal estate deal is for the days to come:
Fields shall be purchased, and deeds written and sealed, and witnesses called in the land of Benjamin and in the environs of Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah; the towns of the hill country, the towns of the Shephelah, and the towns of the Negeb. For I will restore their fortunes—declares YHWH.
This is one of the very few times in the Bible that describes a real estate purchase in full detail: The cost of the plot, the witnesses who testify to its condition, the document that is written, copied, placed in clay jars for safekeeping as legal proof, signed in a way that can’t be falsified. Similar documents were found by archaeologists in Egypt and Iraq.
Also here, mentioned casually in verse 12 is Jeremiah’s scribe, entrusted with this legal procedure: Baruch Ben Neriah, who will soon become quite an important figure and even one day have his own extra-biblical book, shows up here for the first time.
What’s further interesting about this incident is that it begins with one of Jeremiah’s rare reflections that perhaps his visions and prophecies are not from God - but his own mind. This doubt, as this dramatic moment, is intriguing.
Rabbi Benny Lau has this to say about it:
“The grim reality of his imprisonment just moments before the destruction, with his prophecies heralding national disaster, leads him to think that a message of God suddenly announcing that his cousin is coming to sell him a field is but a surreal hallucination. For decades he has had no contact with his relatives; he no doubt wonders about them from time to time. Now, as he sits in the prison yard, protected from his enemies yet aware of the destruction that would descend at any moment, he worries that it is not God speaking, but his own voice. Why would God command him to purchase a field just before the entire land is to be destroyed? Why torture him? In the past, he has tried to distinguish between true and false prophecies. Now he tests his own thoughts. Could this really be God's word?”
Everything about this moment is surreal - the prophet in prison for his own protection, the puppet king about to fall, the city ravaged and the land sold - but just as a symbolic gesture. Jeremiah’s visions will continue as the situation worsens, and so will his doubts.
The fate of Jeremiah's field is not just a family drama, narrated in his first person voice. It is also a metaphor for the nation and its future - who will own the keys to the land and the legacy - now and next? Jeremiah will not come back to the land he now owns.
Will the children or grandchildren of the Palestinian deed and key-holders ever come home?
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