Jeremiah 32:11
So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open: So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open:
Jehoiakim served Nebuchadnezzar three years and then rebelled and was carried to Babylon, Jehoiachin was made king and then rebelled and was carried to Babylon with his court and 10,000 of the people while the gold and treasures of the temple were stripped, and Zedekiah was made king and served eight years and then rebelled. The year-and-a-half siege ended in the taking of the city and the burning of the temple and great houses and the breaking down of the walls. Zedekiah and many people were carried to Babylon, Gedaliah was made governor over the poor left in the land, Gedaliah was murdered by Ishmael, and all the remaining people small and great fled to Egypt for fear of the Chaldees. This record of Nebuchadnezzar's dealings with Jerusalem is the setting of Jeremiah 32, and the verse belongs to the history of the two years before Jerusalem fell.
Anathoth near Jerusalem was Jeremiah's home. When he attempted to go there he was arrested on the charge of joining the Chaldeans and cast into prison. Yet even there he continued to predict that Jerusalem would fall to Babylon.
The property purchase was documented by both a sealed deed prepared according to law and custom and an open copy. The two records served as evidence of the transaction. This double documentation shows that God's law of witness applied to property as well as to other matters. The purchase was an act of faith that repentant Israel would be restored to the promised land and reclaimed from idolatry.