Jeremiah Buys Land in Anathoth (32:1-44) 505managed somehow to enter while the siege was in process, which would have
been achieved at considerable risk (D. N. Freedman).
'Buy, would you, my field that is in Anathoth, that is in the land of Ben-
jamin, for the right of possession is yours and the redemption is yours. Buy it for
yourself!' The request is at once both ordinary and extraordinary. Hanamel
has become poor and is forced to sell property that he owns. Belonging to the
same priestly family as Jeremiah, he can and does own land. According to
Num 18:23, the Levitical priests did not receive an inheritance(= share ofter-
ritory, nal:zala) in the Promised Land, but they did have cities and pastureland
outside the cities (Num 35:1-8; Lev 25:34). Abiathar the priest had land
(sadeh) in Anathoth ( 1 Kgs 2:26), and now, three and one-half centuries later,
priestly families in Anathoth have land holdings there (Cogan 2001: 177).
The law states that when someone becomes poor and is forced to sell land,
the next of kin has the duty to redeem it, i.e., purchase the land for himself
(Lev 25:25; de Vaux 1965b: 166-67). It is taken for granted in the OT that no
one sells his land without being forced to do so (J. Pedersen 1964 I-II: 8 3-8 5).
Jeremiah is thus acting as a go)el ("redeemer"), exercising his right and obli-
gation to buy the cousin's land (on the term go) el and the obligations of "next
of kin" to redeem, see Note for 31: 11 ). Here, however, the city is under siege,
and the time to buy land is hardly right. Reuven Yaron pointed out some
years go in a lecture given at the University of California, Berkeley (June 6,
1977), that land, compared with movables, has the advantage of being a last-
ing commodity. Its main disadvantage is that in time of war it cannot be
moved, which is precisely the situation here. When Hannibal was fighting the
Romans (211 B.c.), the land on which he was encamped was put up for s;:ilf'.
in Rome at public auction, and a Roman purchased it at full price. Not to be
outdone, Hannibal imitated this confidence by putting up for sale all the
banking establishments in the Roman Forum, but no bidder came forward
(Florus i 22; Livy xxvi 11.6-7). Hannibal, as it turned out, failed in his at-
tempt to take Rome. The situation here is quite different. Nebuchadrezzar is
encamped on land now being sold in Jerusalem, and the purchaser is con-
vinced that the Babylonian king will take the city, which he does.
that is in the land of Benjamin. The LXX places this phrase before "in Ana-
thoth," leading some scholars (Giesebrecht; Duhm; Cornill; Janzen 1973:
13 3; and others) to omit the phrase as secondary. This explanation appears too
simple (so Holladay, who retains). Both phrases are present in T and Vg. In the
next verse, the LXX omits "that was in Anathoth."
for the right of possession is yours and the redemption is yours. Buy it for your-
self! We do not know if Jeremiah was offered the land because he had seniority
over other kinsmen. It is possible that other kinsmen were offered the land but
declined. The LXX answers this question with the reading: "for yours is the
right to possess it, and you are the oldest (kai su presbuteros );' omitting "Buy it
for yourself!" The MT verb g)l, "to redeem," appears to have been misread here
as gdl, "to grow up" (Hitzig). But the urgent "Buy it for yourself!" is translated in
Aq, CL, S, T, and Vg (paraphrase), and should be retained (Giesebrecht).