Jeremiahchapter 28
17 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
The prophets of old who preceded you and me prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many lands and great kingdoms.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
Jeremiah met this challenge in the fourth year of Zedekiah, while he was still wearing the yoke of the previous chapter. It is the book's clearest account of two prophets contradicting each other in public. Both used the same words of authority in the same holy place, and the people had to decide between them. Its first hearers wanted the hopeful message to be true. Listen for how Jeremiah first answers, and for what he does when he has no word to give. Then watch the calendar the chapter keeps. Read it as a lesson in telling a true word from a welcome one.
Context
- Who
- A congregation watching two prophets contradict each other in public
- What
- The public clash between Jeremiah and the prophet Hananiah over how long Babylon's yoke would last, and the sentence on Hananiah.
- Where
- The temple court in Jerusalem, before the priests and all the people.
- When
- The fifth month of Zedekiah's fourth year, about 593 BC, with the close two months later.
- Why
- To show how a false prophet was exposed and that the LORD's word is proved by what comes to pass.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
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.
Significance
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the sixth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 13:3. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 13:4.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and his headwords, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi opens by fixing the year. The chapter's "in that year" is the year Nebuchadnezzar "gave Zedekiah dominion over the five kings" (Rashi on Jeremiah 28:1:1). He refuses the plain sense of the next phrase, saying "it is impossible to say that it means at the beginning of his reign", since the verse also names the fourth year. In that year Zedekiah went down to Babylon with Seraiah, as the fifty-first chapter records at its close (Rashi on Jeremiah 28:1:2).
Jeremiah's Amen to Hananiah in the sixth verse Rashi calls "An expression of prayer", and he sets two readings of it side by side. The scholars of Aggadah hear it as a barbed wish. Jeremiah is a priest who eats holy food while the Temple stands, and Hananiah is from Gibeon and would serve him as a hewer of wood. Rashi quotes the line "I gain and you lose" and gives Pesikta Rabbathi 27:4 as the source. The second reading comes from the Sages in Sotah 41b. They learned from this chapter that "whoever flatters a wicked man will ultimately fall into his hands or into the hands of his son or into the hands of his son’s son". Rashi traces the fulfilment to Irijah, the grandson of Hananiah, who later seized Jeremiah (Rashi on Jeremiah 28:6:2).
The test of a prophet in the seventh to ninth verses Rashi reads through Rabbi Tanhuma. A prophet of retribution says, "If it does not come, I am not a liar, for the Holy One, blessed be He, renounces the evil". The prophet of peace has no such cover, and if his word fails he stands as a liar (Rashi on Jeremiah 28:7:1).
Three notes close the chapter. The beasts of the field given to Nebuchadnezzar Rashi reads with a picture: "He rode on a lion and tied a serpent on its head" (Rashi on Jeremiah 28:14:1). To the sentence of death on Hananiah he adds the line "And next year you shall be buried" (Rashi on Jeremiah 28:16:1). The death in the seventh month raises a question of the calendar, which Rashi answers with a story. Hananiah died on the day before Rosh Hashanah and told his sons to hide his death until the new year, "in order to make Jeremiah’s prophecy appear false" (Rashi on Jeremiah 28:17:1).
The corpus carries sixteen further notes on this chapter without an English text. Each is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so each is cited here and none is quoted. The notes of Malbim are cited at Malbim on Jeremiah 28:2:1, 28:5:1 and 28:9:1. The notes of Metzudat David are cited at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 28:2:1, 28:3:1, 28:4:1, 28:8:1, 28:9:1, 28:10:1, 28:11:1, 28:13:1 and 28:15:1. The notes of Radak are cited at Radak on Jeremiah 28:4:1, 28:7:1, 28:10:1 and 28:13:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-one rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Arakhin 17a:5, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:78, Ein Yaakov, Arakhin 3:11, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 11:5:2, Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther, Introduction 2 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 13:3:2. It holds Sanhedrin 103a:4 there as well. On the second verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 10:4, Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 10:7 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 2:14:1. On the third verse it holds Sifrei Devarim 178:2. On the fifth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 7:35, Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:40, Shevuot 36a:12 and Sotah 41b:15. On the sixth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Shevuot 4:10, Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 13:3, Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 308:4, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 708:10 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 938:55.
On the tenth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 13:4. On the thirteenth verse it holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:15:3 and Sifrei Devarim 318:3. On the fourteenth verse it holds Kohelet Rabbah 3:11:1. On the sixteenth verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 30:15:3, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 19:16:2, Sanhedrin 89a:20, Sifrei Devarim 189:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 922:3. On the seventeenth verse it holds Seder Olam Rabbah 25:1.
The corpus also prints one locator anchored past the chapter's last verse, the seventeenth, cited here with the anchor it gives. It prints Avot DeRabbi Natan 41:9 at Jeremiah 28:22. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 28:1:1 to 28:17:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Jeremiah 28:2:1, 28:5:1 and 28:9:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 28:2:1, 28:3:1, 28:4:1, 28:8:1, 28:9:1, 28:10:1, 28:11:1, 28:13:1 and 28:15:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 28:4:1, 28:7:1, 28:10:1 and 28:13:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/28.json, the 31 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Hananiah Breaks the Wooden Yoke Off the Prophet's Neck
In the fifth month of that: The date is exact, “In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year.” The setting is public, “in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people,” and Hananiah is “from Gibeon.” Prophet meets prophet before the same witnesses.
Jeremiah 28:1
“In the beginning ... Zedekiah - Probably a gloss put into the margin to explain “the same year,” from where it has crept into the text. Gibeon - A city of priests Jos 21:17. Hananiah was probably a priest as well as a prophet. He chose either a Sabbath or a new moon, that he might confront Jeremiah not only in the presence of the priests, but also of all the people. He used Jer 28:2 the solemn formula which claims direct inspiration.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 28:1
“The fourth year - Perhaps the fourth year of the sabbatical course is here intended. Of Gibeon - it is probable from the place where he lived, which was one of the cities of the priests; that he was a priest.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 28:2-4
Hananiah takes up Jeremiah's own picture and turns it over: “I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.” He promises the articles back “Within two years.” At 27:22 Jeremiah had said the articles would stay in Babylon, and Hananiah's fixed two years is the nearer, more pleasing word.
Jeremiah 28:2
“Ought not Hananiah then to have trembled when any other had alleged God's name? But now, though he derided and laughed to scorn the prophetic office as well as God's holy name, he yet hesitated not to boast that God was the author of this prophecy, which was yet nothing but an imposture.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:2
“Now, upon the reading of this sham prophecy, and comparing it with the messages that God sent by the true prophets, we may observe what a vast difference there is between them. Here is nothing of the spirit and life, the majesty of style and sublimity of expression, that appear in the discourses of God's prophets, nothing of that divine flame and flatus.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Within two years I will restore: Hananiah sets a date, “Within two years.” Barnes notes that the Hebrew reads two years of days, that is, two full years. The articles he promises back are the ones 27:22 said would stay in Babylon.
Jeremiah 28:3
“Within two full years - literally, In yet two years even days. Hananiah probably was induced to fix this date by the expectation that the confederacy then on foot would defeat Nebuchadnezzar.”
restore to this place Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim: Hananiah promises the return of Jeconiah, the king taken to Babylon, while Zedekiah sits on the throne. Barnes notes that Zedekiah was unpopular and the people preferred the young king. The promise set one king against the other.
Jeremiah 28:4
“Jeconiah - Zedekiah not being popular, the people would have preferred the young king, who had not reigned long enough to make enemies. Probably also Zedekiah had started for Babylon Jer 51:59.”
Jeremiah 28:5-9
Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to: Jeremiah answers before the same crowd, “May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied.” A prophet of peace is known as sent “only if the word of the prophet comes true,” the test of Deuteronomy 18:22. Hananiah's claim is held for the one proof that settles it, time.
Jeremiah 28:5
“Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah,.... The false prophet, as he is called by the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic versions: in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord; waiting and worshipping in the temple; and said boldly and before them all, in answer to Hananiah's prophecy, what follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:5
“Though, as a faithful prophet, he foresaw and foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, yet, as a faithful Israelite, he prayed earnestly for the preservation of it, in obedience to that command, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Though the will of God's purpose is the rule of prophecy and patience, the will of his precept is the rule of prayer and practice.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jerome notes that amen means may the Lord do it, the same word Jesus used in the Gospels. Jeremiah wants the good news more than being proved right. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the prophets took no pleasure in announcing judgment.
Jeremiah 28:6
Jeremiah wishes "May the Lord do" what the false prophet said falsely, for this is what "Amen" signifies, a word that the Lord often employed in the Gospel: "Amen, amen, I say to you." He also has greater desire that prosperity is realized than that the truth is told. Another prophet testifies in this connection, saying, "O that I not be a man who has the Spirit and prefers to speak falsely!"
Jerome · written before 420 · Six Books on Jeremiah 5:58.2-59:1patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:6
“The event was the appointed test between contradictory predictions (De 18:21, 22). "Would that what you say were true!" I prefer the safety of my country even to my own estimation. The prophets had no pleasure in announcing God's judgment, but did so as a matter of stern duty, not thereby divesting themselves of their natural feelings of sorrow for their country's woe.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
listen now to this message: The word nevertheless turns from wish to warning. Matthew Henry notes that Jeremiah prayed for the peace of Jerusalem as an Israelite while he foretold its fall as a prophet. Gill adds that he spoke boldly before the whole crowd in the house of the LORD.
Jeremiah 28:7
“Nevertheless, hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears,.... Though this would be very acceptable to me, and I should be glad to have it fulfilled; yet carefully attend to what I am about to say, it being what greatly concerns thee to observe, as well as all present to listen to: and therefore it is added, and in the ears of all the people; that stood round to hear the conversation that passed between the two prophets.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:7
“Of the justice of God in giving judgment between Jeremiah and his adversary. Jeremiah went his way, as a man in whose mouth there was no rebuke, but God soon put a word into his mouth; for he will appear for those who silently commit their cause to him. The word of God, in the mouth of Jeremiah, is ratified and confirmed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The prophets of old who preceded you: Clarke names the earlier prophets as Joel, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk. Each spoke of war, disaster and plague against a corrupt people. A word of judgment stood in the old line of the prophets, and a word of peace needed proof.
Jeremiah 28:8
“The prophets that have been before me - Namely, Joel, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and others; all of whom denounced similar evils against a corrupt people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the prophet who prophesies peace: Clarke calls this the test of a true prophet. He names what will happen and when, and it comes to pass at that time. Hananiah had set two years, so the test would soon apply to him, as Deuteronomy 18:22 lays down.
Jeremiah 28:10-11
Then the prophet Hananiah took the: Hananiah answers with an act: he “took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.” He declares that “within two years” the LORD will break Babylon's yoke. Jeremiah makes no reply and “went on his way,” since the word he needed came to him only afterward.
Jeremiah 28:10
“Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck,.... Which he wore as a symbol of the subjection of Judea, and other nations, to the king of Babylon: an impudent and insolent action this was, to take the prophet's yoke from his neck; and the more so, as it was by the command of God that he made it, and wore it: and brake it; being made of wood, as it afterwards appears, and so might easily be broken.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:10
“The Septuagint does not translate "two years," nor does it call Hananiah a "prophet," lest it appear to name someone a prophet who was in fact no prophet, as if not many persons in sacred Scripture were named in accordance with the opinion of the time in which they lived or according to the truth of the matter. But Joseph is called the father of the Lord.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Six Books on Jeremiah 5:60.2-4patristic
Jeremiah the prophet went on his way: Hananiah uses the broken yoke as his own sign that every nation will be freed the same way. Jerome notes that the Greek Bible leaves out the two years and never calls him a prophet. Jeremiah walks away without an answer.
Yokes of Iron, and Hananiah Dies That Same Year
Jeremiah 28:12-14
But shortly after Hananiah the prophet: The LORD's reply comes after Hananiah has broken the yoke. “You have broken a yoke of wood, but in its place you have fashioned a yoke of iron.” The bondage grows harder, and Nebuchadnezzar is given even “control of the beasts of the field,” the submission of chapter 27 restated.
The wooden yoke broken by Hananiah is replaced with one of iron. Clarke reads it as a harder captivity than before, with every nation under the yoke and even their beasts taken. The false hope made the bondage heavier.
Jeremiah 28:13
“Yokes of iron - Instead of Nebuchadnezzar’s yoke being broken, this captivity shall be more severe than the preceding. All these nations shall have a yoke of iron on their neck. He shall subdue them and take all their property, even the beasts of the field.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
put a yoke of iron on the neck: The LORD claims the iron yoke as His own work. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that Hananiah and those like him helped bring it on, yet God was the first cause. The words repeat the grant of 27:6, down to the beasts of the field.
Jeremiah 28:14
“I have put--Though Hananiah and those like him were secondary instruments in bringing the iron yoke on Judea, God was the great First Cause (Jer 27:4-7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 28:15-17
Then the prophet Jeremiah said to: Jeremiah's sentence is exact: “The LORD did not send you, but you have persuaded this people to trust in a lie.” The charge is rebellion, the charge later laid on Shemaiah in chapter 29. Hananiah died “in the seventh month of that very year,” two months after his promise.
Jeremiah 28:15
When Jeremiah admonishes him, saying, "Listen, Hananiah, the Lord did not send you," he omits the title "prophet," for how could he call him a prophet who refused to be sent by the Lord? But the truth and order of history is preserved, as we said above, not according to what was but according to what was thought to be at the time. He says, in effect, "You have deceived the people with a falsehood, to prevent them from agreeing with the judgment of God. Hence, you know that this will be the year you die."
Jerome · written before 420 · Six Books on Jeremiah 5:62.2-4patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:15
“Hear now, Hananiah; the Lord hath not sent thee - This was a bold speech in the presence of those priests and people who were prejudiced in favor of this false prophet, who prophesied to them smooth things. In such cases men wish to be deceived.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
remove you from the face of the earth: Hananiah had promised freedom in two years. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown define his rebellion as opposing the plain command to submit to Babylon, as in 29:32. Clarke notes that his death within the year would show the people which prophet the LORD had sent.
Jeremiah 28:16
“This year thou shalt die - By this shall the people know who is the true prophet. Thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord, and God will cut thee off; and this shall take place, not within seventy years, or two years, but in this very year, and within two months from this time.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:16
“Hananiah's death took place in the seventh month, that is, within two months after the prediction, answering with awful significance to the two years in which Hananiah had foretold that the yoke imposed by Babylon would end. rebellion--opposition to God's plain direction, that all should submit to Babylon (Jer 29:32).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
in the seventh month of that very year: The oracle came in the fifth month, so Hananiah died about two months later. Clarke calls his death the seal of God on the words of Jeremiah, which gave his other prophecies weight with the people. Wesley draws from it a warning to teachers.
Jeremiah 28:17
“So Hananiah - died the same year in the seventh month - The prophecy was delivered in the fifth month, (Jer 28:1), and Hananiah died in the seventh month. And thus God, in mercy, gave him about two months, in which he might prepare to meet his Judge. Here, then the true prophet was demonstrated, and the false prophet detected. The death of Hananiah thus predicted, was God’s seal to the words of his prophet; and must have gained his other predictions great credit among the people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 28:17
“Died - Within two months after Jeremiah had thus prophesied; so dangerous a thing it is for ministers to teach people contrary to the revealed will of God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.