Hanamel

Biblical Account

Hanamel appears only in Jeremiah 32 (verses 7, 8, 9, and 12). His name is commonly interpreted to mean "God is gracious." Scripture identifies him as the son of Shallum, Jeremiah's uncle (Jeremiah 32:7). Because Jeremiah came from a priestly family of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin (Jeremiah 1:1), Hanamel is understood to have belonged to the same family.

The event took place in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah. At that time the army of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah was confined in "the court of the prison" (a courtyard watched by guards) in the royal palace (Jeremiah 32:1-2). God first told Jeremiah that Hanamel would come and ask him to buy a field. Hanamel did come and urged Jeremiah to buy the field in Anathoth, "for the right of redemption is thine." To redeem an inheritance meant that a close relative bought a kinsman's land so that it would not pass into the hands of outsiders. Jeremiah records, "Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD" (32:8). He weighed out seventeen shekels of silver and drew up a deed of purchase before witnesses. He entrusted two copies of the deed, one sealed and one open, to Baruch, who was to place them in an earthen vessel so that they would be preserved for many days (32:9-14).

Significance Within Scripture

Buying land on the eve of the nation's collapse defied common sense. Scripture presents this purchase as a sign of the promise that "houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land" (32:15). It was an enacted prophecy that restoration would follow judgment. Jeremiah's subsequent prayer (32:17) and God's answer (32:27, 37-44) explain its meaning. The episode belongs to the larger prophetic sequence concerning the Babylonian exile and the return from exile. The name Hanamel does not appear in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Issues

• Hanamel's motive: The text does not explain why Hanamel wanted to sell the field. Sermons often add the conjecture that he wanted cash at a time when land had lost its value because of the siege, but this interpretation is not found in the text.
• Relation to the law of redemption: The transaction is read against the background of the redemption regulations in Leviticus 25. However, because Leviticus 25:34 forbids the sale of the fields belonging to the Levitical cities, commentators offer various explanations of how a field belonging to a priestly family could be sold.
• Textual variation: The Hebrew Masoretic Text of 32:12 is reported to describe Hanamel as "my uncle." The Septuagint and most translations, in keeping with verse 7, read "my uncle's son."
• Connection to the New Testament: Matthew 27:9-10 cites the purchase of the potter's field for thirty pieces of silver as a word of Jeremiah. Some scholars identify the field purchase in Jeremiah 32 as part of its background, while others regard Zechariah 11 as the primary source.
• Typological reading: Some preachers read Jeremiah, as the one who redeems the inheritance, as a foreshadowing of Christ the kinsman-redeemer. Treatment of this episode does not differ greatly among denominations; the differences lie mainly in how broadly such typological applications are made.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Hanamel is treated less as an individual figure in his own right than as part of the field-purchase scene in Jeremiah 32. The passage is frequently used in sermons on faith that trusts God's promise and "invests" in the future even in hopeless circumstances, or on restoration and hope after judgment. Praise songs or Sunday school lessons focused on Hanamel himself are not widely known.