Babylon's army encircles Jerusalem. Siege ramps of dirt and timber press against the city walls. Inside the royal palace courtyard, guards detain a prophet who predicts defeat. Rations consist of measured bread and stagnant water. Starvation thins the population while battering rams hammer the western gates.
Babylonian military chronicles from 587 b.c. report the collapse of the surrounding countryside. Extrabiblical ostraca from military outposts confirm nearby Judean fortresses had already fallen. In the middle of this collapse, a landowner named Hanamel travels three miles from the village of Anathoth to the prison courtyard. He brings an offer to sell a plot of land that enemy troops already occupy.
The prisoner purchases the overrun territory for 17 silver shekels, weighing exactly seven ounces on a standard merchant scale. He writes the transaction on a papyrus scroll and binds it with strings and wax seals. Witnesses sign a second open copy. He places both documents inside a fired ceramic jar to survive the coming destruction.
Men bury paper in the dirt to stake a claim on a world that does not yet exist.
The jar rests below the surface while the city burns. Jerusalem falls a few months later, and soldiers march the surviving population 500 miles east into exile. The king loses his eyes and his kingdom. The buried deed waits in the dark for an heir to unseal the jar.