Word for the Week

Week beginning: 22nd November, 2015

By Andrew Myers | St Albans

My cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, 'Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.'

"I knew that this was the word of the LORD; so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver. I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the silver on the scales. I took the deed of purchase - the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, as well as the unsealed copy - and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions: 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Take these documents…and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.

Jeremiah 32:8-15 (NIV)

Jeremiah attends a completion meeting

This passage should be a favourite for all Christian conveyancing lawyers: the exercise of a right of pre-emption, the public payment of the sale price and then the deed of conveyance containing all the contractu