A reading from the Book of Jeremiah.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah King of Judah,

which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar.

At that time the army of the King of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet

was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah.

For Zetekiah, king of Judah, had imprisoned him, saying, Why do you prophesy and say, thus says the Lord? Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. Zetekiah, king of Judah, shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face, and see him eye to eye.

And he shall take Zetekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the

Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed. Jeremiah said, the word of the Lord came to me. Behold, Hanamel, the son of Shalom, your uncle, will come to you and say, By my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours. Then Hanamel, my cousin, came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me,

buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. And I bought the field at Anathothoth from Hannah-Mell, my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, 17 shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses,

and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms

and conditions, and the open copy, and I gave the deed of purchase to Berwick, the son of

Nariah, son of Messiah, in the presence of Hanamel, my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses

who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of allamel, my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the

deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the

guard, a charged barrack in their presence, saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase, and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware

vessel, that they may last

for a long time, for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyard,

shall again be bought in this land. After I had given the deed of purchase to Berwick, the son of

Narayah, I prayed to the Lord, saying, Ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your

great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands,

but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them. O great and mighty God,

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