Jeremiah 32:9

THE MESSAGE

"So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I paid him seventeen silver shekels. I followed all the proper procedures: In the presence of witnesses I wrote out the bill of sale, sealed it, and weighed out the money on the scales. Then I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy that contained the contract and its conditions and also the open copy—and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. All this took place in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, as the Jews who were at the jail that day looked on.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
So I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and I weighed out the silver to him—seventeen shekels of silver.

Hebrew Names Version
I bought the field that was in `Anatot of Hanam'el my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

King James Version
And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

English Standard Version
"And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver.

New American Standard Bible
"So I bought the field which was in Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son, and I weighed out the silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver.

New Century Version
"I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, weighing out seven ounces of silver for him.

Amplified Bible
"I bought the field that was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed out the money for him, seventeen shekels of silver.

World English Bible
I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I bought the field of Hanameel, mine vncles sonne, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the siluer, euen seuen shekels, and tenne pieces of siluer.

Legacy Standard Bible
"I bought the field which was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son, and I weighed out the silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver.

Berean Standard Bible
So I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and I weighed out seventeen shekels of silver.

Contemporary English Version
from Hanamel, and so I did. The price was seventeen pieces of silver, and I weighed out the full amount on a scale.

Complete Jewish Bible
So I bought the field at ‘Anatot which belonged to my cousin Hanam'el and weighed out the money for him, seven ounces of silver shekels.

Darby Translation
And I bought of Hanameel, mine uncle's son, the field which is in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, seventeen shekels of silver.

Easy-to-Read Version
I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out 17 shekels of silver for him.

George Lamsa Translation
And I bought the field of Nahmael my uncles son, which was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

Good News Translation
I bought the field from Hanamel and weighed out the money to him; the price came to seventeen pieces of silver.

Lexham English Bible
And I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle, that was at Anathoth. And I weighed out to him the money, seventeen silver shekels.

Literal Translation
And I bought the field in Anathoth from my uncle's son, Hanameel, and weighed him the silver, seventeen shekels of silver.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and so I lowsed the londe from Hananeel of Anathot, myne Vncles sonne, and weyed him there the moneye: euen seuen sycles, and ten syluer pens.

American Standard Version
And I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel mine uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

Bible in Basic English
So I got for a price the property in Anathoth from Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, and gave him the money, seventeen shekels of silver;

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel mine uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

King James Version (1611)
And I bought the field of Hanameel my vncles sonne, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, euen seuenteene shekels of siluer.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And so I bought the lande from Hanaeel of Anathoth myne vncles sonne, and wayed hym there the money, euen seuen sicles, and ten syluer pence:

English Revised Version
And I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel mine uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y bouyte the feeld, which is in Anathot, of Ananeel, the sone of my fadris brothir. And Y paiede to hym siluer, seuene stateris, and ten platis of siluer;

Update Bible Version
And I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

Webster's Bible Translation
And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that [was] in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, [even] seventeen shekels of silver.

New English Translation
So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out seven ounces of silver and gave it to him to pay for it.

New King James Version
So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money--seventeen shekels of silver.

New Living Translation
So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces of silver for it.

New Life Bible
So I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel, the son of my father's brother. And I weighed out seventeen pieces of silver for him.

New Revised Standard
And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And I bought the field from Hanameel son of mine uncle that was in Anathoth, - and weighed him the silver, seventeen shekels, was the silver;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters, and ten pieces of silver.

Revised Standard Version
"And I bought the field at An'athoth from Han'amel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver.

Young's Literal Translation
And I buy the field, that [is] in Anathoth, from Hanameel, my uncle's son, and I weigh to him the money -- seventeen shekels of silver.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I bought the field which was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son, and I weighed out the silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver.

Contextual Overview

¹The Message Jeremiah received from God in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah. It was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was holding Jerusalem under siege. Jeremiah was shut up in jail in the royal palace. Zedekiah, king of Judah, had locked him up, complaining, "How dare you preach, saying, ‘ God says, I'm warning you: I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will take it over. Zedekiah king of Judah will be handed over to the Chaldeans right along with the city. He will be handed over to the king of Babylon and forced to face the music. He'll be hauled off to Babylon where he'll stay until I deal with him. God 's Decree. Fight against the Babylonians all you want—it won't get you anywhere.'" ⁶Jeremiah said, " God 's Message came to me like this: Prepare yourself! Hanamel, your uncle Shallum's son, is on his way to see you. He is going to say, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth. You have the legal right to buy it.' ⁸ "And sure enough, just as God had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me while I was in jail and said, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, for you have the legal right to keep it in the family. Buy it. Take it over.' "That did it. I knew it was God 's Message. ⁹"So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I paid him seventeen silver shekels. I followed all the proper procedures: In the presence of witnesses I wrote out the bill of sale, sealed it, and weighed out the money on the scales. Then I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy that contained the contract and its conditions and also the open copy—and gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. All this took place in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, as the Jews who were at the jail that day looked on. ¹³"Then, in front of all of them, I told Baruch, ‘These are orders from God -of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: Take these documents—both the sealed and the open deeds—and put them for safekeeping in a pottery jar. For God -of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, "Life is going to return to normal. Homes and fields and vineyards are again going to be bought in this country."'

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

weighed: Genesis 23:15, Genesis 23:16, 1 Kings 20:39, Esther 3:9, Isaiah 55:2, *marg.

seventeen shekels of silver: or, seven shekels, and ten pieces of silver, Genesis 37:28, Hosea 3:2, Zechariah 11:12, Zechariah 11:13

Cross-References

Genesis 28:13
Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God , the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you."

Genesis 31:3
That's when God said to Jacob, "Go back home where you were born. I'll go with you."

Genesis 32:6
The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."

Genesis 32:7
Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."

Exodus 3:6
Then he said, "I am the God of your father: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, afraid to look at God.

2 Chronicles 32:20
King Hezekiah, joined by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, responded by praying, calling up to heaven. God answered by sending an angel who wiped out everyone in the Assyrian camp, both warriors and officers. Sennacherib was forced to return home in disgrace, tail between his legs. When he went into the temple of his god, his own sons killed him.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I bought the field of Hanameel mine uncle's son; that [was] in Anathoth,.... The prophet agreed with his cousin to take his field of him, at a certain price hereafter mentioned; which may seem strange in one that was a poor prophet, now a prisoner, and the land just going to be subject to the Chaldeans: but the design of this was to show that there would be a return from captivity, when houses and fields should be bought and sold again, of which this was a pledge:

and weighed him the money; agreed upon, which was reckoned not by tale, but by weight:

[even] seventeen shekels of silver; which, reckoning a shekel at half a crown, were no more than two pounds, two shillings, and sixpence; a small sum of money to make a purchase of a field with; though this may be accounted for by the scarcity of money, the field in the hand of the enemy, there being only his kinsman's life in it, the prophet bought the reversion, being his of right; and, besides, it might be only an orchard or garden that is so called. In the Hebrew text it is, "seven shekels and ten [pieces of] silver": and Kimchi and Ben Melech say, that by "shekels" are meant minas or pounds; and by "pieces of silver", selahs or shekels: and so the Targum renders it,

"seven minas, and ten shekels of silver.''

Now a minah or maneh, according to Ezekiel 45:12; was equal to sixty shekels, and so of the value of seven pounds, ten shillings; seven of these made fifty two pounds, ten shillings; and the other ten shekels being one pound, five shillings, the whole amounted to fifty three pounds, fifteen shillings, which would purchase a considerable field.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seventeen shekels of silver - literally, as in the margin, probably a legal formula. Jeremiah bought Hanameel’s life-interest up to the year of Jubilee, and no man’s life was worth much in a siege like that of Jerusalem. As Jeremiah had no children, at his death the land would devolve to the person who would have inherited it had Jeremiah not bought it. He therefore bought what never was and never could have been of the slightest use to him, and gave for it what in the growing urgency of the siege might have been very serviceable to himself. Still, as the next heir. it was Jeremiah’s duty to buy the estate, independently of the importance of the act as a sign to the people; and evidently he gave the full value.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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.