Jeremiah Buys Land in Anathoth (32:1-44) 523the narrative is made privy to Jeremiah's baring of his soul to Yahweh. The
prayer begins by acclaiming Yahweh's mighty work of creation. Nothing is too
difficult for Yahweh. What is more, Yahweh is a God of steadfast love but one
who nevertheless lets fall the iniquity of fathers into the laps of their children.
A great and mighty God is Yahweh of hosts! Yahweh is further extolled for
being excellent in counsel, mighty in deed, and for being watchful over every-
thing that happens, so justice is rendered to each person. Yahweh is the God
who showed signs and wonders in the Exodus, and these miraculous works
have continued up to the present day. Was 597 a deliverance? Was the siege-
lifting, brief as it was, a deliverance? It is difficult to say. But there is no doubt
that Yahweh gave Israel the good land promised to the fathers or that, after the
settlement, rebellion set in, Yahweh's law was not obeyed, and now the people
have met up with this unimaginable evil. Siege ramps are outside Jerusalem,
and the city is as good as conquered by the Chaldeans. Sword, famine, and pes-
tilence are everywhere taking their toll. Yahweh said this would happen, and it
has. Jeremiah says Yahweh is watching things as they occur. So why now has
Yahweh told Jeremiah to buy this field with silver and bring in witnesses? The
prayer ends with the question Jeremiah wanted to ask at the beginning.
Yahweh answers this prayer with four oracles. The first two are directed to
Jeremiah, although we can imagine a larger audience listening in. The first is
preceded by a direct word to Jeremiah, in which Yahweh simply repeats what
Jeremiah said at the opening of his prayer. Yahweh says he is indeed the God of
all flesh, and he asks rhetorically if anything is too difficult for him. Yahweh
knows the answer. So does Jeremiah. The first oracle is one of indictment and
judgment, repeating much of what Yahweh has been saying to Jeremiah and to
Judah over a period of years. The city will be given into the hand of the Chal-
deans, after which they will set it on fire and burn, among other things, the
houses on whose roofs the people have burned incense to Baal and poured out
drink offerings to other gods. Yahweh says it again: This has provoked him no
end! In the second oracle, Israel and Judah both are cited for coming to him in
later days only to do evil. It began in their youth. Yahweh says again how idols
have provoked him. Indeed, it is as if the city has come to him now-from the
day it was built up-only so that he might banish it from his sight. This un-
happy end has come about because of provocation by everyone-kings,
princes, priests, prophets, and people of Jerusalem and all Judah. They have all
treated Yahweh with contempt, disregarding his teaching and not listening to
take needed words of correction. Abominable idols were set up in the Temple
called by Yahweh's name! And things were no better in the Valley, where high
places to Baal were set up and people did the unthinkable by offering their sons
and daughters to Molech. Yahweh, needless to say, did not command such a
thing; indeed, it never entered his mind!
Following this blistering attack, which explains once again the horrible fix
the people are in, Yahweh turns to the more distant future, where his plans are
of a different nature. The two oracles here address a larger Judahite audience.
People have been asking the same question that Jeremiah has asked, and the