524 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
first oracle speaks to their concern about Jerusalem being given over to the
king of Babylon. But Yahweh says he intends to gather people from all the
lands where his divine anger has driven them, and he will bring them back to
this very place, where they will dwell in security. Once again they will be a
people to him, and he will be God to them. Yahweh promises also to the re-
turnees one heart and one path so they will fear him always-for their own
good and for the good of their children after them. Yahweh will cut with them
an eternal covenant, in which he will not turn away-as he is doing now-and
good will be done for them. The fear of himself he will put in their hearts, so
they too will not turn away-as they have now done. This will be a grand day
of rejoicing, for Yahweh will take great pleasure in doing the people good. He
will plant them in the land in all truth, showing resolve and singleness of pur-
pose in everything he does.
In his final oracle to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, Yahweh says he can
bring good just as well as evil, and the good is what he has planned for the
people's future. Fields will once again be bought in the land, the land they are
now lamenting because an enemy has overrun it and made it a ruin. The day
will come when fields will be bought with silver, deeds will be signed and
sealed, and witnesses will be summoned for land transactions in Benjamin and
every other region of Judah, for Yahweh says he fully intends to restore the
people's fortunes.
This narrative reflects the period of the final siege, a year before the fall of
Jerusalem. The two oracles regarding Zedekiah were spoken earlier; the two
oracles following the land purchase on the occasion itself; and the fom final
oracles on the same occasion or later. Jererni;ih's prayer could also have been
spoken on the occasion, or else later. A date for the narrative as a whole is
sometime after the summer of 587 B.C. When this narrative is heard following
chap. 31, the oracles on the eternal covenant (32:36-41) and renewed field
transactions (32:42-44) will supplement the oracles on the new covenant
(31:31-34) and the rebuilding of Jerusalem (31:38-40).
To Martin Luther are attributed the following words:Und wenn ich wiiBte, das morgen die Welt unterginge
So wurde ich doch heute mein Apfelbaumchen pflanzen.And if I knew that tomorrow the world would come to an end
I would still plant my apple trees today.
(Inscribed outside the Christengemeinschaft,
10 Lutherplatz, Eisenach, Germany)In the midst of the chaos and carnage
That accompanies the siege of Jerusalem
Jeremiah buys a farm outside the city
Land now occupied by Babylonian troops