Jeremiah's faith in the ultimate return of the people of Israel to their ancient habitations. Livy records the fact that when Hannibal was approaching Rome, he was startled by the information obtained from a Roman pris oner, that the ground on which his army was then camping, had been sold at Rome, and that the price was not lowered. Thus the Roman citizen at once indicated his contempt for the invader and his perfect faith in the ultimate success of his country's arms. The details of this conveyance are care fully given, and judging from the manner in which it is described, it was evidently the method of conveyance commonly in use. While Jeremiah was in the court of the prison in which he was confined by the or der of the King, his kinsman, Hanamel, came to him and said, " I pray thee, buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin, for to thee belongs the right of inheritance, and to thee belongs the re demption. Therefore buy it for thyself." When a kinsman desired to dispose of his in heritance, it was the right of his nearest kins men to purchase it, and only after the kins men in the order of their precedence, had waived their right, were strangers permitted to acquire it. This right is spoken of as the right of inheritance and the right of redemp tion. The nearest kinsman was the one who would have inherited the land upon the death of its owner, and he was also the Goèl (a term commonly translated "Redeemer"), whose duty it was to take the land by pur chase from the owner, but who had the priv ilege of waiving his right to redeem, so that it passed to the next kinsman and so on. Jeremiah, as the nearest kinsman of Han amel, exercised his right to purchase the field. The formalities consisted of weigh ing the purchase money, delivering it to the seller, preparing, sealing and attesting the deed of conveyance, and placing the deed on record. The substance of the manner of acquiring title was the same as in our own days. Jeremiah thus describes the proceed
ing : " I bought the field from Hanamel, my uncle's son that is in Anathoth, and I weighed out unto him the money, seventeen shekels of silver." " Shekel " was not a coin but a standard weight, and afterwards became the name of a particular piece of money. "And I wrote it in a deed and I sealed it up and had it attested by witnesses, and I weighed the silver in the balance." The entire transaction was public and all the details were performed in the presence of witnesses in order that no dispute might arise as to the question of title. This was absolutely necessary during the time when no written record was made, and even in the days of Jeremiah, when a written record of the transaction was made, the publicity which had always been considered necessary to insure a good title was still a feature of the procedure. The purchaser prepared the deed, and, as we shall shortly see, he pre pared it in duplicate. One copy was sealed up and the other was left open. The pur chaser, after preparing the deeds, presented them for inspection to the witnesses, who attested them by making their mark or by signing their names. The silver was weighed in the balance. In all probability there was in the forum of each community an official scale bearer like the Roman Libripens, whose duty it was to weigh the money. It is not to be presumed that every purchaser carried scales with him for this purpose. After the two deeds were pre pared, one was carefully sealed and depos ited among the public records never to be opened unless the other was lost, or for the purpose of correcting it in case it had been tampered with or altered. It is pos sible also to infer from the account of this conveyance that both deeds were placed on record. One of them, that is the one that was sealed, was not open for the inspection of the public, and the other was left open for such inspection. If this is the manner in which the documents were re corded, it is similar to the practice which now
