Jeremiahchapter 28
17 verses · BSBJeremiah book hub →
Speaks with:Jeremiah 27×7Jeremiah 28×3Jeremiah 29×31 Kings 22×2Joshua 9×1Ezekiel 13×1
Summary
Chapter summary
A prophet against a prophet, in public. Hananiah of Gibeon announces in the temple that within two full years Jehovah will break Babylon's yoke and bring back the vessels and Jeconiah. Jeremiah's reply is disarming ('Amen: Jehovah do so'), followed by the test: the prophet who prophesies peace is vindicated only when his word comes to pass. Hananiah then takes the bar from Jeremiah's neck and breaks it, and Jeremiah simply walks away. Later the word comes: thou hast broken bars of wood, but made in their stead bars of iron. Jeremiah tells him Jehovah never sent him, and that he will die this year, and in the seventh month Hananiah dies.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–11 Hananiah Breaks the Wooden Yoke Off the Prophet's Neck
- B. 12–17 Yokes of Iron, and Hananiah Dies That Same Year
The outline
A.Hananiah Breaks the Wooden Yoke Off the Prophet's Neckvv. 1 to 11
Read vv. 1 to 11 →B.Yokes of Iron, and Hananiah Dies That Same Yearvv. 12 to 17
Read vv. 12 to 17 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 28The history
Hananiah of Gibeon is not described as a fraud on sight. He speaks with the same opening formula, in the same holy place, with the same confidence, and he says what everyone wants: within two full years God will break Babylon's yoke and bring back the vessels and King Jehoiachin.
Jeremiah's first answer is generous — amen, may the LORD do so — followed by the historical point that the prophets before them both had preached war, famine and plague against many countries, so the burden of proof falls on the man promising peace. The Law's own test was that a prophet's word must come true.
Then Hananiah takes the wooden yoke off Jeremiah's neck and breaks it, an act of prophetic theatre answering prophetic theatre. Jeremiah walks away without a reply. The text notes plainly that he went his way, which is a striking admission — no instant rebuttal came.
The word comes later: the wooden bars are replaced with iron bars. And a sentence is pronounced on Hananiah himself — this year you shall die, because you have made this people trust in a lie. The chapter records that he died in the seventh month, two months later, and dates it.
What it meant to them
For the first hearers this is the clearest case study in the book of how to tell true from false when both men sound the same. The difference was not volume or venue. It was two years, then two months, and a calendar.
It also shows something about the true prophet. He had no comeback in the moment, and he did not manufacture one. He waited until he had a word, which is exactly the discipline the other man lacked.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Jeremiah
- John Bright, Jeremiah (Anchor Bible)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 28. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.