Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 32:9

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.

9. that was in Anathoth ] Omit with LXX.

weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver ] The shekel weighed about 220 of our grains. The amount may appear small (about 2. 6 s. 6 d. of our money), but we do not know the size of the field. It is clear from the aim of the whole transaction that it was a fair price in ordinary times. We must remember also that in those days the purchasing power of silver was much greater. Araunah’s threshing floor, oxen, and implements were bought at a time of great prosperity for fifty shekels (2Sa 24:24).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Seventeen shekels of silver – literally, as in the margin, probably a legal formula. Jeremiah bought Hanameels life-interest up to the year of Jubilee, and no mans 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 Jeremiahs 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.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 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.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

That is, about 21. 2s. 6d., a small purchase, which argues the field here mentioned to be but some orchard or garden; though we must allow the price of land strangely fallen at this time, when the enemy was besieging the chief city of the country. It should seem they were wont there to make their payments more by weight than by tale.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. seventeen shekels of silverAsthe shekel was only 2s. 4d.., the whole would be under2, a rather small sum, even taking into account the fact of theChaldean occupation of the land, and the uncertainty of the time whenit might come to Jeremiah or his heirs. Perhaps the “sevenshekels,” which in the Hebrew (see Margin) aredistinguished from the “ten pieces of silver,” were shekelsof gold [MAURER].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole 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 Eze 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.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He afterwards adds, that he bought the field of Hanameel his uncle’s son, which was in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin There is nothing superfluous in these words, for though the Prophet speaks of places well known, yet he had a regard to the time of the purchase, for the land of Benjamin was then in the power of enemies: the Jews had been reduced to such straits that they were not safe at Jerusalem. Anathoth was a village, as it was well known, exposed to the ravages of enemies, and was seized on as a prey at their first coming. And he adds, in the land of Benjamin, for it was nigh the borders of Judah, but it had been forsaken by its inhabitants, and all had fled to Jerusalem. As then the land of Benjamin had no inhabitant, it was by no means reasonable for the Prophet to pay even the smallest sum for a field there.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(9) Weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.The Hebrew presents the singular combination, seven shekels and ten [pieces of] silver, and is followed by the LXX. and Vulg. There is no ground for thinking that there is any difference between the coins or bullion so described, and the formula was probably one of the technicalities of Jewish conveyancing. As regards the price it is not easy, in the absence of any measurement of the field, to form an estimate of its value; but, speaking roughly, as compared with the four hundred shekels paid by Abraham for the field of Ephron (Gen. 23:16), or the fifty paid by David for the threshing-floor and oxen of Araunah (2Sa. 24:24; in 1Ch. 21:25 the price is fixed at six hundred shekels of gold), or to the thirty shekels paid for the potters field in Mat. 27:9, or to the market price of a slave varying from fifteen (Hos. 3:2) to thirty shekels (Zec. 11:12), the price, under 2 sterling, would seem to have been far below its average market value, and in this respect the story falls short of the dignity of its Roman parallel (see Note on Jer. 32:7). Hanameel, as said above, was probably glad to part with it at any price. It is possible, however, that the smallness of the sum was owing to the fact that the sale, as above suggested, conveyed possession only for the unexpired term of a tenancy which was to end with the next year of Jubilee. On that assumption the prophets motive in purchasing may have been to keep it in the family instead of letting it pass to a stranger who might be unwilling to surrender it when the year of Jubilee arrived. As the prophet was unmarried he had no son to inherit it. The precise sum fixed, perhaps even the form in which the sum is stated, may have originated in Jeremiahs wish to connect in this way the two numbers, ten and seven, which when multiplied together produced the number which he had fixed for the years of captivity, and therefore for the term of restoration. Such an elaborate artifice of symbolism would, at least, be quite in character in a prophet who adopts the acrostic form in his Lamentations and the cypher of an inverted alphabet known as the Athbash. (See Note on Jer. 25:26.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9. Seventeen shekels Two things arrest attention in this price: 1) The peculiar form, literally “seven shekels and ten of silver.” 2) Its smallness, about ten dollars. Possibly the first may be explained as a legal formula, while the second may be due to the consideration that the sale of land was, correctly speaking, only the sale of the use of it up to the year of jubilee. And then, the value of land depends largely on the state of society and the political prospects of the country. Other cases in which the price of land in Palestine is mentioned are the sale of Araunah’s threshing-floor with the oxen and implements for fifty shekels, (2Sa 24:24,) and the potter’s field to the chief priests for thirty shekels. Mat 27:7.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jer 32:9 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.

Ver. 9. And I bought the field. ] This was bravely done, to make a purchase at such a time, when the enemy was seizing upon all. That Roman is famous in history who dared to purchase that field near Rome wherein Hannibal had pitched his camp. a Verum eorum res non erant ita deplorates; but the Romans were nothing near so low at that time as the Jews were at this.

And weighed him the money. ] That was the manner of payment in those times. b Hence the Hebrew shekel from shakal, to weigh Gen 23:16 – our English word scale seemeth to come from it), the Greek from ponderare to weigh Exo 30:13 Mat 27:9 or of statera, for a balance the Dutch and English mark c cometh from a similar origin.

Even seventeen shekels of silver. ] No great sum, not much over forty shillings; but it might be as much as the thing was worth, considering the times especially.

a Liv., lib. xxvi. Plutar. in Annib. Flor., lib. ii. c. 6.

b Olim moneta librabatur. Pater puellae id aurum in dotem viro appendit

c Unde et nomen marcharum hodie nobis superest. – Zegedin.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)