Ch. Jeremiah 28:1-17. Warning to the false prophets through Hananiah. Hananiah’s rejoinder and punishment

1. in the beginning, etc.] See on Jeremiah 27:1. If, as seems likely, the utterance of Hananiah which follows was on the same day on which Jeremiah appeared in public, wearing a yoke on his neck (Jeremiah 27:2), and that the messengers from abroad (ib. 3) had not yet departed, we can realise the effect which Hananiah’s words of direct contradiction to Jeremiah’s forecast (ib. 16) would produce.

Hananiah] one of the prophets of the national party, whose unauthorized predictions of peace and safety were among the severest trials to which Jeremiah had to submit. For the relation of the false to the true prophets see Intr. pp. xxxii. f.; Jeremiah 23:9, Jeremiah 29:8-9; Jeremiah 29:31-32. Cp. Ezekiel 13.

Gibeon] El Jib, about five miles N.W. of Jerusalem. It was one of the cities of the priests (Joshua 21:17).

3. that Nebuchadnezzar … carried them to Babylon] LXX omit.

4. Jeconiah] It shews that the exiled king must still have had a substantial following in Jerusalem, when Hananiah ventured upon this forecast in the face of the de facto ruler.

7–9. The passage forms an important aid to our grasping of the real nature of O.T. prophecy. True prophets did not flatter with promises of good fortune, seeing that their aim was to preach repentance and reformation to a sinful world. Any future prosperity which they contemplated could only be subsequent to the purging away of evil by the Divine judgements. For such an attitude on the part of the prophet courage and self-denial were needed; hence the presumption was a safe one that one who spoke thus was sent by God, and so refused to pander from selfish motives to the wishes of his hearers. Nothing could avail against this argument in proof of the trustworthiness of the true prophet, except the actual fulfilment of his opponent’s prediction to the contrary. It was probably as realising this that Hananiah, in spite of the risk of exposure involved, fixed an early date for the fulfilment of his pleasing forecast (Jeremiah 28:3), and thereupon had his own weapon turned against him (Jeremiah 28:16 f.). For this passage cp. Deuteronomy 18:22, also Jeremiah 13:1-3.

11. And the prophet … went his way] Co., maintaining that Jeremiah could not under the circumstances have been silent, rejects these words but Du. rightly pleads for their retention as entirely consonant with the dignity and nobility of Jeremiah’s character. Co. considers them as inserted by a later hand and suggested by “go and tell” of Jeremiah 28:13.

12–17. Jeremiah’s emphatic contradiction of Hananiah’s forecast.

13. thou shalt make] LXX (better) I will make.

bars of iron] Hananiah’s act would only serve, by exciting the Jews to resistance, to render the servitude which they should undergo more harsh.

14. and they shall … field also] LXX (probably rightly) omit. The insertion may have been suggested by Jeremiah 27:6, where see note.

16. because thou hast spoken rebellion against the Lord] LXX omit. The words seem to have been introduced from Deuteronomy 13:5, where, however, as Gi. points out, unlike the present passage, idolatry is spoken of.

17. in the seventh month] i.e. within two months (see Jeremiah 28:1).