Jeremiah 32:8
So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jeremiah 32:8 belongs to the account of events in the two years before Jerusalem fell. It stands in the history of Nebuchadnezzar's successive attacks on Jerusalem under Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. The year-and-a-half siege begun in Zedekiah's ninth year led to the capture of the city, the burning of the temple and great houses, the breaking down of the surrounding walls, and the carrying of Zedekiah and many people to Babylon. Only the poorest people were left in the land under Gedaliah as governor, and after Gedaliah was murdered all the people small and great fled to Egypt.
The verse belongs to Jeremiah's attempt to go to Anathoth, his home near Jerusalem. That trip led to his arrest on the charge of trying to join the Chaldeans and to his being cast into prison, and even after that imprisonment he continued to utter predictions against the city. It is part of the record of Jeremiah's experiences in Judah amid false prophets, repudiation of the law of God and the principles of righteousness, and persecutions of the prophet, showing the awful enormity of sin and its sure consequences.
The book is not in chronological order from chapter 20 onward, and in the chronological story of Jeremiah's experiences chapter 32 comes after chapters 34 and 37 and before chapter 33. Chapters up to chapter 20 are in fairly chronological order, but chapters 20 to 46 are not, with material from Zedekiah's reign placed before material from Jehoiakim's reign through transposition in the ancient scrolls. In chronological order Jeremiah 32 stands after Jeremiah 37 and before Jeremiah 33.
The specific prediction that Hanameel would come to Jeremiah and offer him the field in Anathoth was fulfilled. When Hanameel came to Jeremiah in the court of the prison and made the offer as foretold, Jeremiah knew that the message was the word of the Lord. Jeremiah recognized an event as the word of the Lord when Hanameel's visit and request occurred as God had told him. Accurately fulfilled predictions give reason to recognize a prophetic message as God's word. Jeremiah recognized the Lord's word when events confirmed what he had been told, speaking from what the Lord had shown and acknowledging the word as divine when its fulfillment became clear.
Jeremiah's purchase of the field was an act of faith in God's promise that repentant Israel would be restored to the promised land and would permanently turn from idolatry. The purchase demonstrated his trust in the prophecy and his commitment to his people.