Jeremiah 32 Study Notes

32:18 The phrase You show faithful love to thousands occurs also in Ex 20:6; Dt 5:10 (cp. Ex 34:7; Dt 7:9). God’s retribution is just and fair, not capricious. He only lays the fathers’ iniquity on their sons’ laps when they themselves repeat those sins.

32:19-20 Note the Lord watches not only his people but all the ways of the children of men.

32:21-22 You brought your people Israel out of Egypt repeats the language of Dt 26:8-9.

32:23-25 Buying a field seems absurd in the light of current circumstances.

32:26-27 On Is anything too difficult for me? see note at vv. 16-17.

32:28-35 The first-person pronoun appears ten times in these verses. God’s anger is real, but its expression is always contingent on Israel’s repentance.

32:33 Once again, Israel had turned their backs to God and not their faces (see note at 18:17).

32:35 The idolatrous worship of Baal and Molech, in which Israel sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire (see notes at 7:31; 19:4) is also banned in Lv 18:21 and 20:2-5.

32:36-44 In six remarkable promises in these verses, God declared that he will: (1) gather his people from all lands (23:3; 29:14; 30:10; 31:8-14; Is 11:12; Ezk 11:17; 36:24); (2) make them live in safety; (3) declare that they will be my people, and I will be their God; (4) give them integrity of heart and action so that they will fear me always; (5) make a permanent covenant with them (Is 55:3; 61:8; Ezk 16:60; 37:26); and (6) take delight in them and faithfully plant them in this land.

32:41 God pledges to carry this out with all his heart and mind. This is the only place in the OT where this expression is used of God.

32:42-44 The last verses of this chapter return to Jeremiah’s purchase of the field in Anathoth. This was a sure sign that fields in Judah would once again belong to Hebrews in the future. This will include all the geographical areas in Israel, from Benjamin, where Jeremiah’s purchase was made, to Jerusalem . . . Judah’s cities and all the way south to the Negev.