Jeremiah Accuses Hananiah of Being a False Prophet
28 (A) Later that same year, in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah[a] was king,[b] the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur from Gibeon came up to me in the temple. And while the priests and others in the temple were listening, 2 he told me that the Lord had said:
I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, and I will smash the yoke[c] that Nebuchadnezzar[d] put on the necks of the nations to make them his slaves. 3 And within two years, I will bring back to Jerusalem everything that he took from my temple and carried off to Babylonia. 4 King Jehoiachin[e] and the other people who were taken from Judah to Babylonia will be allowed to come back here as well. All this will happen because I will smash the power of the king of Babylonia!
5 The priests and the others were still standing there, so I said:
6 Hananiah, I hope the Lord will do exactly what you said. I hope he does bring back everything the Babylonians took from the temple, and that our people who were taken to Babylonia will be allowed to return home. 7 But let me remind you and everyone else 8 that long before we were born, prophets were saying powerful kingdoms would be struck by war, disaster, and disease. 9 Now you are saying we will have peace. We will just have to wait and see if that is really what the Lord has said.[f]
10 Hananiah grabbed the wooden yoke from my neck and smashed it. 11 Then he said, “The Lord says this is the way he will smash the power Nebuchadnezzar has over the nations, and it will happen in less than two years.”
I left the temple, 12 and a little while later, the Lord told me 13-14 to go back and say to Hananiah:
I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You smashed a wooden yoke, but I will replace it with one made of iron. I will put iron yokes on all the nations, and they will have to do what King Nebuchadnezzar commands. I will even let him rule the wild animals.
15-16 Hananiah, I have never sent you to speak for me. And yet you have talked my people into believing your lies and rebelling against me. So now I will send you—I'll send you right off the face of the earth! You will die before this year is over.
17 Two months later, Hananiah died.
Footnotes
- 28.1 Zedekiah: See the note at 1.3.
- 28.1 Later … king: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 28.2 yoke: See the note at 27.1,2.
- 28.2 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2.
- 28.4 Jehoiachin: Hebrew “Jeconiah” (see the note at 24.1).
- 28.9 We will … said: See Deuteronomy 18.21,22.