Albert Barnes Commentary Jeremiah 32:9

"And I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel mine uncle`s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver." — Jeremiah 32:9 (ASV)

Seventeen shekels of silver - literally, as noted in the margin, probably a legal formula. Jeremiah bought Hanameel’s life-interest up to the year of Jubilee, and no man’s life was worth much in a siege like that of Jerusalem. As Jeremiah had no children, at his death the land would devolve to the person who would have inherited it had Jeremiah not bought it. He therefore bought what never was and never could have been of the slightest use to him, and gave for it what in the growing urgency of the siege might have been very useful to him. Still, as the next heir, it was Jeremiah’s duty to buy the estate, independently of the importance of the act as a sign to the people; and evidently he gave the full value.