Jeremiah 32:25

And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:16-25 Jeremiah adores the Lord and his infinite perfections. When at any time we are perplexed about the methods of Providence, it is good for us to look to first principles. Let us consider that God is the fountain of all being, power, and life; that with him no difficulty is such as cannot be overcome; that he is a God of boundless mercy; that he is a God of strict justice; and that he directs every thing for the best. Jeremiah owns that God was righteous in causing evil to come upon them. Whatever trouble we are in, personal or public, we may comfort ourselves that the Lord sees it, and knows how to remedy it. We must not dispute God's will, but we may seek to know what it means.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For - See the margin. It is enough to place the command side by side with the state of Jerusalem to show how contrary it is to all the rules of human prudence. The prophet is sure that God will explain to him his difficulty.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. for the city, &c.—rather, "though," &c.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In this verse again the particle is ill translated and, and for in the latter clause. The learned author of the English Annotations judgeth well, that it had been better translated whenas in the second place, as Genesis 4:11 Psalm 102:5, or albeit, or though, as it is translated, Joshua 17:18 Psalm 23:4; and yet instead of and in the beginning, as it is Jeremiah 23:21. Lord, saith the prophet, expound thy meaning to me, why, when the city is upon the matter ready to be yielded up to the Chaldeans, and cannot possibly hold out long, thou shouldest set me to make purchases for thine enemies to possess.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou hast said to me, O Lord God,.... Or, "O Lord God, yet thou hast said to me" (b); notwithstanding this is the case, the country all around is in the hand of the enemy, and the city is as good as delivered up to them, yet thou hast given me such orders, as follows:

buy thee a field for money, and take witnesses; for though these words were not expressly said to him by the Lord; yet inasmuch as he told him that his uncle's son would come to him, and propose the selling of his field to him; and accordingly did come, agreeably to the word of the Lord; Jeremiah understood it as the will of the Lord, that he should buy it before witnesses; which he did, as before related:

for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans; or rather, "though the city is given" (c), &c. yet thou hast said so: now by this the prophet suggests, that though he had obeyed the divine order, as he ought to have done, yet there was some difficulty upon his mind; or there were some objections Started, by the Jews that were with him, how these things could be reconciled; that he should be ordered to buy a field at such a time as this, and thereby signify that fields and vineyards should be bought and possessed in the land, and yet the city just going to be surrendered into the hands of the Chaldeans.

(b) "tu vero nihilominus dicis mihi", Piscator; "tu tamen dixisti ad me, Domime Jehovah", Schmidt. (c) "cum tamen urbs tradenda sit", Schmidt; "quum tamen futurum sit", Piscator; "quum civitas ipsa traditur", Junius & Tremellius; "cum tamen urbs tradita sit", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. The two things, the state of the city and God’s command, are placed side by side that their apparent inconsistency may be most strikingly shewn.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - For the city is given; rather, whereas. It is a reflection of the prophet's. Jeremiah 32:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

These wonders of grace which the Lord wrought for His people, Israel requited with base unthankfulness. When they had got into possession of the land, they did not listen to the voice of their God, and did the reverse of what He had commanded. (The Kethib בתרותך might be read as a plural. But since תּורה in the plural is always written elsewhere תּורת (cf. Genesis 26:5; Exodus 16:28; Exodus 18:20; Leviticus 26:46, etc.), and the omission of the י in plural suffixes is unusual (cf. Jeremiah 38:22), the word rather seems to have been incorrectly written for בּתורתך (cf. Jeremiah 26:4; Jeremiah 44:10, Jeremiah 44:23), i.e., the w seems to have been misplaced. Therefore the Lord brought on them this great calamity, the Chaldean invasion (תּקרא for תּקרה); cf. Jeremiah 13:22, Deuteronomy 31:29. With this thought, the prophet makes transition to the questions addressed to the Lord, into which the prayer glides. In Jeremiah 32:24, the great calamity is more fully described. The ramparts of the besieging enemy have come to the city (בּוא with acc.), to take it, and the city is given (נתּנה, prophetic perfect) into the hands of the Chaldeans. "Because of the sword;" i.e., the sword, famine, and pestilence (cf. Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 25:16, etc.) bring them into the power of the enemy. "What Thou spakest," i.e., didst threaten through the prophets, "is come to pass; and, behold, Thou seest it (viz., what has happened), and yet (ואתּה adversative) Thou sayest to me, 'Buy the field,' " etc. The last clause, 'והעיר נ, is a "circumstantial" one, and is not a part of God's address, but is added by Jeremiah in order to give greater prominence to the contrast between the actual state of matters and the divine command regarding the purchase. The prayer concludes with this, which is for men an inexplicable riddle, not (as Ngelsbach thinks) for the purpose of leaving to the reader the solution of the problem, after all aids have been offered him - for Jeremiah would not need to direct his question to God for that purpose - but in order to ask from God an explanation regarding the future. This explanation immediately follows in the word of the Lord, which, from Jeremiah 32:26 onwards, is addressed to the prophet.