Jeremiah 32:44
Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD.
Men shall buy fields for money,.... They shall have plenty of money, and they shall lay it out in land, and carry on husbandry, cultivate the ground, which had lain long untilled, but now should be manured for public as well as private good. This some understand of particular churches planted in Judea, and out of it, throughout the whole world; and of men's gathering and joining themselves to them by a profession of that faith which is more precious than gold or silver:
and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses; as Jeremiah had done before, when he bought the field of his uncle's son,
Jeremiah 32:10. This is spiritually understood by some of the word of God laid hold on by faith; of the sealing of the Spirit, and of the ordinances of the Gospel:
in the land of Benjamin; where Anathoth was, and Jeremiah's field lay; and where the same should be done by others as was done by him:
and in the places about Jerusalem; in the suburbs of it, and in the villages round about it:
and in the cities of Judah; throughout the whole country, divided into the three following parts:
and in the cities of the mountains; in the hilly country of Judea, where was Hebron, and other cities, Luke 1:39;
and in the cities of the valley. The Septuagint retains the Hebrew word "sephela", or the plain, in which were Emmaus, Lydda, Sharon, places mentioned in the New Testament:
and in the cities of the south; or Nagab, the south part of Judea, which led to Gaza, Acts 8:26. This division of Judea into the mountains, valley, and south, exactly agrees with the account of it in
Joshua 15:21. Some understand this of the Gospel going out of Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost, not only to the places near that city, but to Samaria, and the cities of the south towards Egypt, and so into all the world:
for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD; their temporal captivity from Babylon, and their spiritual captivity from sin, Satan, and the law.