Helon felt now the full force of the prophecy of Jehovah by Isaiah;[13] “They joy before thee, according to the joy in harvest.” They had travelled about three sabbath-days' journies through this exhilarating scene, when they reached the little town of Anathoth; their road to Joppa did not necessarily take them through it, but it was the birth-place of Jeremiah, and Elisama and Helon could not refuse themselves the pleasure of hallowing the remembrance of the prophet, who had been the guest of their family, on his own natal soil. It was here that this man of God had spent his childhood—here, as a youth, he had received the call of Jehovah; and when Helon, in his boyish days, had heard from his father or his mother, or his uncle, any anecdote of their prophet, the names of Jeremiah and of Anathoth bad always been connected together. ----- Footnote 13: Isaiah ix. 3. ----- They halted at the gate, and asked to be shown the field of Hanameel, which Jeremiah bought from the son of his father’s brother,[14] when the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, a transaction which Jehovah designed to be an omen that the people then dispersed should be again collected together, and return to occupy their ancient possessions. “For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, they shall still buy houses, fields, and vineyards in this land.” One of the severest denunciations of the prophet, was that delivered against Anathoth, in which, as his own city, he was least held in honour. ----- Footnote 14: Jer. xxxvii. 7. ----- Thus saith Jehovah against the men of Anathoth, Who seek thy life and command thee, “Prophesy not in the name of Jehovah Lest thou die by our hand.” Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Behold, I will punish them: The young men shall die by the sword; Their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, And there shall be no remnant of them. For I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth In the time when I visit them.—Jer. xi. It was fearfully accomplished on this city of the priests; but so was also the word spoken at the purchase of the field of Hanameel; for at the return from the captivity one hundred and twenty-eight men undertook to rebuild the city of their fathers.[15] ----- Footnote 15: Ezra ii. 23. ----- Helon’s ancestors, strictly speaking, derived their extraction from this city of the priests in the tribe Benjamin, and therefore he regarded this as his own city. He imagined a resemblance between himself, as he was now about to assume the sacerdotal office, and the calling of the prophet Jeremiah, and repeated the account of it to his uncle, as they returned from seeing the field of Hanameel.