7. “Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’”
8. Then, just as the lord had said he would, my cousin Hanamel came and visited me in the prison. He said, “Please buy my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else, so buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that the message I had heard was from the lord.
9. So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces of silver for it.
10. I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver, and paid him.
11. Then I took the sealed deed and an unsealed copy of the deed, which contained the terms and conditions of the purchase,
12. and I handed them to Baruch son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I did all this in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed, and all the men of Judah who were there in the courtyard of the guardhouse.
13. Then I said to Baruch as they all listened,
14. “This is what the lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy, and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.’
15. For this is what the lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’”
16. Then after I had given the papers to Baruch, I prayed to the lord:
17. “O Sovereign lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!
18. You show unfailing love to thousands, but you also bring the consequences of one generation’s sin upon the next. You are the great and powerful God, the lord of Heaven’s Armies.
19. You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles. You see the conduct of all people, and you give them what they deserve.
20. You performed miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt—things still remembered to this day! And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world. You have made your name famous to this day.
21. “You brought Israel out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders, with a strong hand and powerful arm, and with overwhelming terror.
22. You gave the people of Israel this land that you had promised their ancestors long before—a land flowing with milk and honey.
23. Our ancestors came and conquered it and lived in it, but they refused to obey you or follow your word. They have not done anything you commanded. That is why you have sent this terrible disaster upon them.