---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Jeremiah 32:1. The word that came — This prophecy bears its own date: it was delivered in the tenth year of Zedekiah, which answered to the eighteen"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/jeremiah/32"
---

Verse [Jeremiah 32:1](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/1). ***The word that came*** — This prophecy bears its own *date*: it was delivered in the *tenth* year of *Zedekiah*, which answered to the *eighteenth* of Nebuchadnezzar. It appears from [2 Kings 25:8](../../../kjv/2-kings/25/8), that the *eleventh* year of Zedekiah was the *nineteenth* of Nebuchadnezzar; and consequently, that the *eighteenth* of that monarch must have been the *tenth* of the Jewish king.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:2](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/2). ***Then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem*** — The siege had commenced the *year before*, and continued a *year after*, ending in the *fifth* month of the following year; consequently, the siege must have lasted about *eighteen* months and *twenty-seven* days. See [2 Kings 25:18](../../../kjv/2-kings/25/18).

Verse [Jeremiah 32:4](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/4). ***And shall speak with him mouth to mouth*** — He shall be reduced to a state of the most abject servitude. The *slave* was obliged to fix his eyes on every motion of the master whilst giving his orders, who often condescended to give them only by *dumb signs*.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:7](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/7). ***The right of redemption*****is*****thine*** — The law had established that the estates of a family should never be alienated. If, therefore, a man through poverty was obliged to sell his patrimony, the *nearest relative* had a right to purchase it before all others, and even to redeem it, if it had been sold to another. This is what is called the *right of goel*, or *kinsman*, [Leviticus 25:25](../../../kjv/leviticus/25/25). And in the year of jubilee the whole reverted to its ancient master [Leviticus 25:13](../../../kjv/leviticus/25/13).

Verse [Jeremiah 32:8](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/8). ***This*****was*****the word of the Lord.*** — It was by his appointment that I was to make this purchase. The whole was designed as a symbolical act, to show the people that there would be a *return* from Babylon, that each family should re-enter on its former possessions, and that a man might safely purchase on the certainty of this event.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:9](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/9). ***Weighed him the money*** — It does not appear that there was any *coined* or *stamped* money among the Jews before the captivity; the Scripture, therefore, never speaks of *counting* money, but of *weighing* it.
***Seventeen shekels of silver.*** — The shekel at this time must have been a *nominal* coin; it was a thing of a certain *weight*, or a certain *worth*. *Seventeen* shekels was the *weight* of the silver paid: but it might have been in *one* ingot, or piece. The shekel has been valued at from *two shillings and threepence* to *two* *shillings and sixpence*, and even at *three shillings*; taking the purchase-money at a *medium* of the value of the shekel, it would amount only to about *two pounds two shillings and sixpence*. But as estates bore value only in proportion to the *number of years* *before the jubilee*, and the field in question was then in the hands of the *Chaldeans*, and this cousin of Jeremiah was not likely to come back to enjoy it after *seventy* years, (nor could he then have it, as a jubilee would intervene and restore it to the original family,) and money must now be very scarce and high in its value, the *seventeen* shekels might have been a sufficient sum for a field in those circumstances, and one probably not large in its dimensions.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/10). ***I subscribed the evidence*** — We have here all the circumstances of this legal act:
1. An offer is made of the reversion of the ground, till the jubilee, to him who would then of right come into possession.
2. The price is agreed on, and the silver *weighed* in the balances.
3. A *contract* or *deed* of sale is drawn up, to which both parties agreeing,
4. *Witnesses* are brought forward to see it *signed* and *sealed*; for the contract was both *subscribed* and *sealed*.
5. A *duplicate* of the deed was drawn, which was not to be *sealed*, but to lie *open* for the inspection of those concerned, in some public place where it might be safe, and always to be seen.
6. The original, which was *sealed up*, was put in an *earthen pitcher*, in order to be preserved from accidents.
7. This was delivered by the purchaser into the hands of a third party, to be preserved for the use of the purchaser, and *witnesses* were called to attest this *delivery*.
8. They subscribed the *book* *of the purchase*, perhaps a *town book*, or *register*, where such purchases were entered. *Baruch* was a scribe by profession; and the deeds were delivered into his hands, before witnesses, to be preserved as above.
Perhaps the *law*, in this case, required that the *instrument* should be thus lodged. But, in the present case, *both the deeds*, the *original* and the *duplicate*, were put into the earthen pitcher, because the city was about to be burnt; and if lodged as *usual*, they would be destroyed in the general conflagration. See [Jeremiah 32:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/14).

Verse [Jeremiah 32:15](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/15). ***Houses and fields - shall be possessed again*** — That is, this is an evidence that the captivity shall not last long: houses, c., shall here be possessed again, either by their present owners or immediate descendants. The *young* might return at least, all *under ten years* of age: there was no natural impossibility that *they* should not live till they should be *fourscore*.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/16). ***I prayed unto the Lord*** — And what a prayer! What weight of matter, sublimity of expression, profound veneration, just conception, Divine unction, powerful pleading, and strength of faith! Historical, without flatness; condensed, without obscurity; confessing the greatest of crimes against the most righteous of Beings, without despairing of his mercy, or presuming on his goodness: a confession that, in fact, acknowledges that God's *justice should* smite and destroy, had not his infinite goodness said, I will pardon and spare.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:19](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/19). ***Thine eyes*****are*****open upon all the ways of - men*** — Thou art omniscient, and knowest all things; thou art omnipresent, and seest all things.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:24](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/24). ***Behold the mounts*** — The huge terraces raised up to plant their engines on, that they might throw darts, stones, c., into the city.
***Because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence*** — The city was now reduced to extreme necessity and from the siege continuing nearly a year longer, we may conclude that the besieged made a noble defense.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:29](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/29). ***With the houses, upon whose roofs*** — As it is most probable that *Baal* was the *sun*, they might have chosen the *tops* of the houses, which were always flat, with battlements around, to offer incense and sacrifice to him at his *rising*, and while he was *in sight* above the horizon.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:30](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/30). ***For the children of Israel and the children of Judah**********have only done evil*** — They have all been transgressors from their earliest history.
***For the children of Israel*** — The ten tribes.
***Have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands*** — They have been sinners beyond all others, being *excessive* *idolaters*. Their *hands* have formed the *objects* of their *worship*.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:33](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/33). ***Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching*****them**] From the frequent reference to this, we may naturally conclude that *morning preaching* prevailed much in Judea.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:37](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/37). ***Behold, I will gather them out of all countries*** — A promise often repeated. See [Jeremiah 29:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/29/14), and [Jeremiah 31:8](../../../kjv/jeremiah/31/8), &c.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:39](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/39). ***I will give them one heart*** — And that a *clean one*.
***And one way*** — And that a *holy and safe one*: and to have this *clean heart*, and to *walk in this good way, will be for the good* *of them and their children after them*. God's blessing is a profitable inheritance. They shall have but *one object* of *worship*, and *one way* of salvation; and being saved from sin, idolatry, and destruction, they must necessarily be happy within and happy without.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:41](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/41). ***Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good*** — Nothing can please God better than our coming to him to receive the good which, *with his whole heart* and *his whole soul*, he is ready to impart. How exceedingly condescending are these words of God!

Verse [Jeremiah 32:42](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/42). ***Will I bring upon them all the good that I have**********promised*** — God's word cannot fail. The Jews have never yet received the good that God has promised. Nothing like the fulfilment of these promises took place after their return from Babylon; therefore there remaineth yet a *rest* for these ancient people of God; and it is under the *Christian* dispensation that they are to have it.

Verse [Jeremiah 32:44](../../../kjv/jeremiah/32/44). ***Men shall buy fields for money*** — This is a reference to the symbolical purchase mentioned at the beginning of the chapter; *that* may be considered by them as a sure sign of their restoration, not only to the *same land*, but to their respective inheritances in that land. This the power of God could alone perform.

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