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Jeremiah
Chapter Twenty-eight
Jeremiah 28
Chapter Contents
A false prophet opposes Jeremiah. (1-9) The false prophet
warned of his approaching death. (10-17)
Commentary on Jeremiah 28:1-9
(Read Jeremiah 28:1-9)
Hananiah spoke a false prophecy. Here is not a word of
good counsel urging the Jews to repent and return to God. He promises temporal
mercies, in God's name, but makes no mention of the spiritual mercies which God
always promised with earthly blessings. This was not the first time Jeremiah
had prayed for the people, though he prophesied against them. He appeals to the
event, to prove Hananiah's falsehood. The prophet who spake only of peace and
prosperity, without adding that they must not by wilful sin stop God's favours,
will be proved a false prophet. Those who do not declare the alarming as well
as the encouraging parts of God's word, and call men to repentance, and faith,
and holiness, tread in the steps of the false prophets. The gospel of Christ
encourages men to do works meet for repentance, but gives no encouragement to
continue in sin.
Commentary on Jeremiah 28:10-17
(Read Jeremiah 28:10-17)
Hananiah is sentenced to die, and Jeremiah, when he has
received direction from God, boldly tells him so; but not before he received
that commission. Those have much to answer for, who tell sinners that they
shall have peace, though they harden their hearts in contempt of God's word.
The servant of God must be gentle to all men. He must give up even his right,
and leave the Lord to plead his cause. Every attempt of ungodly men to make
vain the purposes of God, will add to their miseries.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 28
Verse 1
[1] And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of
the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth
month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake
unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the
people, saying,
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.
Verse 12
[12] Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the
prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck
of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Then — Some time after.
Verse 13
[13] Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou
hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
But — Thou hast further incensed God against them, and
provoked him to make their judgment heavier.
Verse 17
[17] So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the
seventh month.
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 on Jeremiah》
28 Chapter 28
Verses 1-17
Verse 11
And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
Self in service
(with Jeremiah 26:14):--We couple these
passages together, because they lead our minds to the same important thought,
namely, the laying aside of “self” by the servants of the Lord. Hananiah takes
the yoke from off Jeremiah s neck, and breaks it, and so discredits him and his
prophecy in the presence of the people. “And the prophet Jeremiah went his
way.” He left it to God to vindicate His own honour, which He did very
soon--very terribly. Before the princes also, in chap. 26., he tells out
uncompromisingly all the truth of God; he knew that he did so at the peril of
his life. “As for me,”--he was not insensible to personal suffering, still
himself he was as nothing--“behold I am in your hand, do with me as seemeth
meet unto you.” By this complete abnegation of “self” on the part of the
prophet, we are led to consider some matters connected with “self” in our
service. There is a young period in the Christian’s life, when we are deceived
by not seeing “self” at all; when we have no dread of it; when we never even
suspect its existence. At this time, we mistake its energies for spiritual
life, and often seek to carry out what is really the Lord’s work, in the powers
and energies of the flesh, i.e. “self.” There is a period farther
on, when we detect “self” partially. The Spirit of God has led us onward in our
education, and raised our standard, making us watchful and distrustful of
“self” to some degree. Then comes a yet more advanced stage, when we see “self”
to such an extent as to make us dread it greatly when we see it ever intrusive,
ever substituting motives low and mean for what should be holy and high; and we
wage war with this “self,” fully determined to put it down. There is also yet a
more advanced state, when we have attained such a knowledge of the power of
“self” that, while we war with, and repress it, we have come to know that here
we shall never have done with it, and look forward to full deliverance only
when we reach that land where there is perfect freedom.
I. The wrong
operations of “self” in service. Much that we do may be done from the action of
mere natural feelings--there may be nothing of God in it at all A man may be
gratifying only his own natural energy in all that seems so earnest and true.
And when we allow “self” to influence us, we shall be subjected to disturbing
influences. Self-love will be easily wounded in the rough contact with opposers
of the truth. And our judgment will be warped. It is very hard to be calm, and
judicial, when under the influence of strong personal feelings, and where
personal interests are concerned. Self will also drive us on too far. We shall
not know when “to go our way.” We need not go far to detect some of the evil
effects which flow from this wrong operation of “self” in service. It gives the
enemy occasion to blaspheme. Satan continually attempts to confound persons and
principles; men will look at the imperfect way in which we have manifested the
principle, and not at the principle itself. Our infirmities become mixed up
with the cause of God, and so far as they can, bring it into disrepute. And
thus that saying becomes true--“religion suffers more from her friends than her
enemies.”
II. The expulsion
of “self” from service. How can this be done? In the most favourable of cases
only by degrees. But what is a man to do?
1. He must seek for enlightenment on this subject from the Holy
Spirit.
2. Let him seek for a more perfect sympathy with Christ. If we have
this, we shall become assimilated with Him--we shall grow like Him; His mind
will transfuse itself into our mind--and the principles, on which He acted,
will become ours.
3. And then the seeking for a true knowledge of our own
insignificance is very important in putting down “self.” We both think and act
sometimes as though we were the first cause; and not only the first cause, but
the final object also--as if all were to be by us, and for us--the axe thinks
that it is doing all the work, and is independent of the one that heweth
therewith. The very learning our insignificance will be helpful; and, when we
have learned it in some degree, it will keep us, in proportion as the lesson
has been learned, to our proper place. (P. B. Power, M. A.)
Verse 13
Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them
yokes of iron.
Yokes of wood and of iron
To throw off legitimate authority is to bind on a worse tyranny.
Some kind of yoke every one of us must bend our necks to, and if we slip them
out we do not thereby become independent, but simply bring upon ourselves a
heavier pressure of a harder bondage.
I. We have the
choice between the yoke of law and the iron yoke of lawlessness. Even a band of
brigands, or a crew of pirates, must have some code. I have read somewhere that
the cells in a honeycomb are circles squeezed by the pressure of the adjacent cells into
the hexagonal shape which admits of contiguity. If they continued circles,
there would be space and material lest, and no complete continuity. So, in like
manner, you cannot keep five men together without some mutual limitations which
are shaped into a law. Now, as long as a man keeps inside it he does not feel
its pressure. A great many of us, for instance, who are in the main law-abiding
people, do not ever remember that there is such a thing as restrictions upon
our licence, or the obligation to perform certain duties; for we never think
either of taking the licence or of shirking the duties. The yoke that is accepted
ceases to press. Once let a man step outside, and what then? Why, then, he is
an outlaw; and the rough side of the fence is turned outwards, and all possible
terrors, which people within the boundary have nothing to do with, gather
themselves together and frown down upon him. I need not remind you of how this
same thesis--that we have to choose between the yoke of law and the iron yoke
of lawlessness--is illustrated in the story of almost all violent revolutions.
They run the same course. First the rising up of a nation against intolerable
oppression, then revolution devours its own children, and the scum rises to the
top of the boiling pot. Then comes, in the language of the picturesque
historian of the French Revolution, the type of them all--then comes at the end
“the whiff of grapeshot” and the despot. First the government of a mob, and
then the tyranny of an emperor comes to the people that shake off the yoke of
reasonable law.
II. We have to
choose between the yoke of virtue and the iron yoke of vice. We are under a far
more spiritual and searching law than that written in any statute-book, or
administered by any Court. Every man carries within his own heart two things,
and two persons; the court, the tribunal, the culprit, and the judge. And here,
too, if law be not obeyed, the result is not liberty, but the slavery of
lawlessness. A great philosopher once said that the two sublimest things in the
universe were the moral law and the starry heavens. And that law “I ought”
bends over us like the starry heavens with which he associated it. No man can
escape from the pressure of duty, and on every man is laid, by his very make,
the twofold obligation, first to look upwards and catch the behests of that
solemn law of duty, and then to turn his eyes and his strength inwards and
coerce or spur, as the case may be, the powers of his nature, and rule the
kingdom within himself. Now, as long as a man lets the ruling parts of his
nature guide the lower faculties, he feels comparatively no pressure from the yoke.
But if he once allows beggars to ride on horseback whilst princes walk--sense
and appetite and desire, and more or less refined forms of inclination to take
the place which belongs only to conscience interpreting duty--then he has
exchanged the easy yoke for one that is heavy indeed. What does a man do when,
instead of loyally accepting the conditions of his nature, and bowing himself
to serve the all-embracing law of duty, he sets up inclination of any sort in
its place? What does he do? I will tell you. He unships the helm; he pitches
compass and sextant overboard; he fires up the furnaces, and screws down the
safety-valve, and says, “Go ahead!” And what will be the end of that, think
you! Either an explosion or a crash upon a reef! and you may take your choice
of which is the better kind of death--to be blown up or to go down.
III. We have the
choice between the yoke of Christ and the iron yoke of godlessness. If you do
not take Christ for your Teacher you are handed over either to the uncertainty
of your own doubts or to pinning your faith to some man and enrolling yourself
as a disciple who is prepared to swallow down whole whatsoever the rabbi may
say, giving to him what you will not give to Jesus; or else you will sink back
into utter indolence and carelessness about the whole matter; or else you will
go and put your belief and your soul into the hands of a priest; or shut your eyes and
open your mouth and take whatever” tradition may choose to send you. The one
refuge from all these, as I believe, is to go to Him and learn of Him, and take
His yoke upon your shoulders. But, let me say further, it is better to obey
Christ’s commandments than to set ourselves against them. For if we will take
His will for our law, and meekly assume the yoke of loyal and loving obedience to Him,
the door into an earthly paradise is thrown open to us. His yoke is easy, not
because its prescriptions and provisions lower the standard of righteousness
and morality, but because love becomes the motive, and it is always blessed to do that
which the Beloved desires. When “I will” and “I ought” cover exactly the same
ground, then there is no kind of pressure from the yoke. Christ’s yoke is easy
because, too, He gives the power to obey His commandments. (A. Maclaren, D.
D.)
The two yokes
I. Men must wear
some yoke. In every stage of life--childhood, youth, manhood; and in every
station of life--servants, masters, &c.
1. God has made and sustains us, and asks that we submit to His will
2. With our passions and propensities, if we break the yoke it is
meet we should wear, and do not serve God, we at once bend our necks to another
yoke and serve slavishly our own selves.
II. Christ’s yoke
is an easy one to wear.
1. The yoke of Christ is a right one. Serve Jesus Christ, and it is
found that the Christian law is perfection itself.
2. The yoke of Christ is framed in our interest. To believe in Christ
is the highest wisdom; to repent of sin is the most delightful necessity; to
follow after holiness is the most blissful pursuit; to become a servant of
Christ is to be made a king and priest unto God.
3. Christ s yoke is not exacting. He, in His grace, always gives us
of His bounty when He asks of us our duty.
4. It is an easy yoke. Never did a man wear it but he always loved to
wear it.
5. The bright example of Christ makes the yoke pleasant to bear. He
Himself has carried the very yoke we bear, and we have blessed fellowship with
Him in this.
6. All who have borne Christ’s yoke have had grace given equal to the
weight of the burden. Wolsey regretted that he had not “served God with half the zeal he
had served his king,” but none has ever bewailed the zeal with which he
followed Christ!
7. Christians who have borne this yoke always desire to get their
children into it. Often men say, “I do not want my sons to follow my trade, it
is wearying, its pay is small,” &c.
III. Those who
refuse Christ’s easy yoke will have to wear a worse one.
1. Turning from the right road, from the cry of rectitude, because it
threatens shame or loss, will entail vaster after-losses.
2. Backsliders, by putting off the yoke of Christianity, have not
improved their condition.
3. They who refuse the Bible and follow tradition, Do these perverts
of the true Christian religion get an easier yoke? No.; there are penances and
mortifications, &c,
4. The self-righteous who attempt to work their own way to heaven.
Self-righteousness is an iron yoke indeed.
5. Unbelievers, who will not believe the simple revelation of God,
presently find themselves committed to systematic misbeliefs, which distract
reason, oppress the heart, and trammel the conscience.
6. Lovers of pleasure. Pleasure often means lust, and gaiety means
crime; and self-indulgence brings beggary and degradation, In the last
tremendous day of Christ’s coming to judgment, the Christian’s yoke will be as
a chain of gold about his neck; but sin, pleasure, will be as an iron yoke, a
burden of enslaving woe. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 16
This year thou shalt die.
Thoughts on death
1. Let men live ever so many years, some one year will be the
year of their death.
2. Every year is a year of death to many; there never was a year
since the abbreviation of human life, since the extensive propagation and
dispersion of mankind over all countries on the face of the earth, which has
not been a year of death to tens of thousands,
3. Last year was a year of death to very many.
4. This year, very probably, will be a year of death to some of us.
This or the other tree may be cut down; this or the other branch may be lopt
off, and fall to the ground. Let us see then that we be ready, that if cut
down, it may be in mercy, not in wrath; that if plucked up by the root and
transplanted, it may be to be transplanted in a far better soil, where the air
is more genial, where the fruits are always ripe.
5. No one of us knows but God may be saying to him or her, “This year
thou shalt die.” Futurity is wisely hid from man; we know not the year or day
of our death we need therefore constantly to watch.
6. It may be in mercy or in wrath that God is saying to this or the
other one, “This year thou shalt die.” It was in wrath that this was said to
Hananiah.
7. The year of one’s death is a most eventful year to him. This dissolves
our connection with the present world; it issues us into the world of spirits.
If we are the Lord’s people, it associates us with God, Christ, angels, and the
spirits of just men made perfect in the state of glory and blessedness.
8. There is no outliving the appointed year of one’s death. No
distinction of rank, no worldly pre-eminence, no degree of riches, influence,
or power, no plea of necessity, no supposed usefulness in civil or sacred
society, can prevent death.
9. The year of one’s death may come very unexpectedly. (Anon.)
Solemn thoughts
I. This sentence
is doubtless expressive of the decision of God concerning many this year.
1. The page of history affords no record of a single year in which
death desisted from his work of destruction.
2. The last year of many is now commended.
3. Various are the means by Which God’s design will be executed.
II. No individual
can be certain that this does not express God’s decision concerning himself.
1. Utterly impossible for us to know who are, or are not, included in
God’s appointments.
2. The circumstances of some render it most probable that this year
will be their last.
3. Doubtless those who think least of death, and confidently reckon
on future years, will find this sentence fulfilled.
III. It is the duty
and interest of all to use wisely the gracious hours they enjoy.
1. What is it to die? To pass from this state of being into the
immediate presence of our Maker and Judge.
2. Am I prepared to die?
3. Begin the year with earnest preparation. (J. Bunter.)
A sermon on the New Year
It is highly probable, that if some prophet, like Jeremiah, should
open to us the book of the Divine decrees, one or other of us would there see
our sentence, and the time of its execution fixed, “Thus saith the Lord, This
year thou shalt die.” There some of us would find it written, “This year thou
shalt enjoy a series of prosperity, to try if the goodness of God will lead
thee to repentance.” Others might read this melancholy line, “This year shall
be to thee a series of afflictions: this year thou shalt lose thy dearest
earthly support and comfort; this year thou shalt pine away with sickness, or
agonise with torturing pain, to try if the kind severities of a Father’s rod
will reduce thee to thy duty. Others, I hope, would road the gracious decree,
“This year, thy stubborn spirit, after long resistance, shall be sweetly
constrained to bow to the despised Gospel of Christ. This year shalt thou be
born a child of God, and an heir of happiness, which the revolution of years
shall never, never, terminate.” Others perhaps would read this tremendous doom,
“This year My Spirit so long resisted, shall cease to strive with thee; this
year I will give thee up to thine own heart’s lusts, and swear in My wrath thou
shalt not enter into My rest.” Others would probably find the doom of the false
prophet Hananiah pronounced against them: “Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will
cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die.”
I. This year you
may die.
1. Your life is the greatest uncertainty in the world.
2. Thousands have died since the last New Year’s Day; and this year
will be of the same kind with the last; the duration of mortals; a time to die.
3. Thousands of others will die: it is certain they will, and why may
not you?
4. Though you are young; for the regions of the dead have been
crowded with persons of your age; and no age is the least security against the
stroke of death.
5. Though you are now in health and your constitution seems to
promise a long life; for thousands of such will be hurried into the eternal
world this year, as they have been in years past.
6. Though you are full of business, though you have projected many
schemes, which it may be the work of years to execute, and which afford you
many bright and flattering prospects.
7. Though you have not yet finished your education, nor fixed in
life, but are preparing to appear in the world, and perhaps elated with the
prospect of the figure you will make in it.
8. Though you are not prepared for it.
9. Though you deliberately delay your preparation, and put it off to
some future time.
10. Though you are unwilling to admit the thought. Death does not
slacken his pace towards you, because you hate him, and are afraid of his
approach.
11. Though you may strongly hope the contrary, and flatter yourself
with the expectation of a length of years.
II. What if you
should? If you should die this year, then all your doubts, all the anxieties of
blended hopes and fears about your state and character will terminate for ever
in full conviction. If you are impenitent sinners, all the artifices of
self-flattery will be able to make you hope better things no longer; but the
dreadful discovery will flash upon you with the resistless blaze of intuitive
evidence. You will see, you will feel yourselves such. This year you may die:
and should you die this year, you will be for ever cut off from all the
pleasures of life. Then an everlasting farewell to all the mirth, the tempting
amusements and vain delights of youth. Farewell to all the pleasures you derive
from the senses, and all the gratifications of appetite. Then farewell to all
the pompous but empty pleasures of riches and honours. The pleasures both of
enjoyment and expectation from this quarter will fail for ever. But this is not
all If you should die this year, you will have no pleasures, no enjoyments to
substitute for those you will lose. Your capacity and eager thirst for
happiness will continue, nay, will grow more strong and violent in that
improved adult state of your nature. And yet you will have no good, real or
imaginary, to satisfy it; and consequently the capacity of happiness will
become a capacity of misery; and the privation of pleasure will be positive
pain. If you die this year, you will not only be cut off from all the
flattering prospects of this life, but from all hope entirely, and for ever. If
you die in your sins, you will be fixed in an unchangeable state of misery; a
state that will admit of no expectation but that of uniform, or rather
ever-growing misery; a state that excludes all hopes of making a figure, except
as the monuments of the vindictive justice of God, and the deadly effects of
sin.
III. Is it possible
to escape this impending danger?
1. Your case is not yet desperate, unless you choose to make it so;
that is, unless you choose to persist in carelessness and impenitence, as you
have hitherto done.
2. You all know that prayer, reading, and hearing the Word of God,
meditation upon Divine things, free conference with such as have been taught by
experience to direct you in this difficult work; you all know, I say, that
these are the means instituted for your conversion: and if you had right views
of things, and a just temper towards them, you would hardly need instruction or
the least persuasion to make use of them. (S. Davies, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》
28 Chapter 28
INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 28
Thus
chapter relates a false prophecy of Hananiah, who broke off the yoke from
Jeremiah; but in return the people are threatened with an iron yoke, and he
with death; which came to pass. The time, place, and substance of his prophecy,
are in Jeremiah 28:1;
Jeremiah's answer to it, Jeremiah 28:5;
Hananiah breaks Jeremiah's yoke, and explains the meaning of it to the people, Jeremiah 28:10;
Jeremiah prophesies that iron yokes should be given instead of wooden ones, Jeremiah 28:12; and
foretells the death of the false prophet, Jeremiah 28:15.
Verse 1
And it came to pass the same year,.... That the prophet was
bid to make yokes and bonds, and send them to the neighbouring kings, whose ambassadors
were in Zedekiah's court; and when he spoke the things related in the preceding
chapter to Zedekiah, the priests, and people:
in the beginning the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah; perhaps in
the first year of his reign:
in the fourth year, and in the fifth month; not in the
fourth year of Zedekiah's reign, though the Septuagint and A table versions so
render it; since his reign was but eleven years in all, and therefore the
fourth could not be called with so much propriety the beginning of his reign:
though, according to Jarchi, it was the fourth of Zedekiah's reign, the same
year in which he paid a visit to the king of Babylon, Jeremiah 51:59; and
was not only confirmed in his kingdom by him, but, according to the same
writer, had it enlarged, and was made king over five neighbouring kings; and so
this, though the fourth of his reign over Judah, was the first of his enlarged
dominions: but rather this was the fourth year of the sabbatical year, or the
fourth after the seventh year's rest of the land, as Kimchi observes; which was
the first of Zedekiah's reign, who reigned eleven years, and the temple was
destroyed at the end of a sabbatical year; in which he is followed by many,
though there is nothing in the text or context that directs to it. Some divide
Zedekiah's reign into three parts, the beginning, and middle, and end; and so
what was done within the first four years of his reign might be said to be in
the beginning of it. Others think that here are two distinct dates; that the
former respects the things in the preceding chapter, which were in the
beginning of his reign; and the latter that affair of Hananiah, which was in
the fourth year of it. But NoldiusF13Concord. Ebr. Partic. p. 143.
No. 677. , after GlassiusF14Philolog. Sacr. l. 4. p. 625. , gets
clear of the difficulties of this text, by rendering the words, "and it
was from that year, the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, unto
the fourth year of his reign"; that is, the prophet went on for the space
of four years, signifying the will of the Lord by words and types; when in the
fifth month of the fourth year, which was the month of Ab, answering to part of
our July and of August,
Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet; the false
prophet, as the Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions call him,
which was of Gibeon; a city of the priests;
so might be a priest, though not the high priest, as some have thought:
spake unto me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the
priests,
and of all the people; he came to the temple,
where Jeremiah was, to confront him; and he addressed himself to him, the
priests and all the people being present, who were come thither to minister and
worship:
saying; as follows:
Verse 2
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... Using the
language of the true prophets, and describing the Lord just in the same manner
they do, when coming from him, and speaking in his name: a bold and daring
action, when he knew the Lord had not sent him, nor had said any such thing to
him: he next relates with all assurance,
saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon; which he had
put upon the neck of the king of Judah; signifying that he should be no more
subject to him; that is, he had determined to do it, and would do it, in a very
short time.
Verse 3
Within two full years,.... Or, "within two
years of days"F15בעוד שנתים ימים "in adhuc duobis
anois dierum", Montanus; "intra adhuc biennium dierum", Schmidt;
"intra biennum dierum", Cocceius. ; when they are up to a day. The
Targum is,
"at
the end of two years;'
what
the false prophets before had said would be done in a very little time; this
fixes the precise time of doing it; a very short time, in comparison of the
seventy years that Jeremiah had spoken of, Jeremiah 25:11;
will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's
house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place; the temple,
where he now was; namely, all such vessels as before this time had been taken
by him, both in Jehoiakim's reign, and at the captivity of Jeconiah:
and carried them to Babylon; where they still
remained, and according to Jeremiah still would; and were so far from being
brought back in a short time, that what were left would be carried thither
also, Jeremiah 27:19.
Verse 4
And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim
king of Judah,.... This he knew would please the people, who looked upon Zedekiah
only as a deputy of the king of Babylon, and not properly their king; but
Jeconiah, as he is here called; and he knew that Zedekiah dared not resent
this, but was obliged to feigned a desire of Jeconiah's return, though
otherwise not agreeable to him:
with all the captives of Judah that went into Babylon, saith the
Lord; the princes, officers, and others, that should be living at the
time fixed:
for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon; weaken his
power over other nations, and particularly deliver the king of Judah from his
bondage, and from subjection to him.
Verse 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.
Verse 6
Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen,.... Or,
"so be it"; he wished it might be so as Hananiah had said, if it was
the will of God; as a prophet he knew it could not be; as an Israelite, out of
respect to his country, he wished it might be; or, however, he wished that they
would repent of their sins, that the evil he had threatened them with might not
come upon them, and the good that Hananiah had prophesied might be fulfilled:
the Lord do so: the Lord perform the words which thou hast
prophesied; such a hearty regard had he for his country, that, were it the
Lord's pleasure to do this, he could be content to be accounted a false
prophet, and Hananiah the true one; it was very desirable to him to have this
prophecy confirmed and fulfilled by the Lord. The JewsF16T. Bab.
Sotah, fol. 41. 2. &, 42. 1. have a saying, that whoever deals
hypocritically with his friend, at last falls into his hand, or the hands of
his son, or son's son; and so they suppose Jeremiah acted hypocritically with
Hananiah, and therefore fell into the hands of the son of his son's son, Jeremiah 37:13; but
he rather spoke ironically, as some think:
to bring again the vessels of the Lord's house, and all that is
carried away captive, to Babylon into this place; as a priest, this must
be very desirable to Jeremiah, the Jews observe, since he would be a gainer by
it; being a priest, he should eat of the holy things; when Hananiah, being a
Gibeonite, would be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water to him.
Verse 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.
Verse 8
The prophets that have been before me, and before thee of old,.... Such as
Isaiah, Hoses, Joel, Amos, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and others: these
prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms; as Egypt,
Babylon, Syria, Ethiopia, Moab, &c. as Isaiah particularly did:
of war, and of evil, and of pestilence; by evil some
think is meant famine, because that usually goes along with the other
mentioned, and there being but one letter in which the words for evil and
famine differ; and now the prophets that prophesied of these were sent of God,
were the true prophets of the Lord; and therefore this ought not to be objected
to the prejudice of Jeremiah, that his prophecies were of this sort: yea, if
they should not come to pass, yet a man is not to be counted a false prophet,
because such things are threatened in case nations do not repent of their sins
and reform, which they may do; and then the evils threatened are prevented, as
in the case of the Ninevites.
Verse 9
The prophet which prophesieth of peace,.... Of
prosperity, of good things, as Hananiah did, and which are always acceptable to
men; and such a prophet is agreeable to them:
when the word of the Lord shall come to pass; when the
prophecy of good things, which he delivers in the name of the Lord, shall be
filled:
then shall the
prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him; and not till
then; it is the event that must make it manifest: in the other case it may be
in a good measure known before it comes to pass, and, whether it comes to pass
or not, that a prophet is a true prophet; because his prophecies are agreeable
to the word and the declared will of God; contain evils threatened on account
of sin, and in order to bring men to repentance, which must needs be right; and
besides, they have no interest of their own to serve, but run contrary to the
stream of the people, and are exposed to their rage and censure: whereas, a man
that prophesies of peace, he is more to be suspected of flattering the people,
and of prophesying out of his own heart; and nothing but the event can show him
a true prophet; which if he delivers with a proviso, that the people do not do
that which is evil in the sight of God, to provoke him to deny them the
promised good, is always certainly fulfilled; and if it is not, then he appears
manifestly a false prophet.
Verse 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.
Verse 11
And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people,....
Explaining to them his meaning, in taking the yoke, and breaking it:
saying, thus saith the Lord; wickedly making use of
the Lord's name, to give countenance to his words and actions:
even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
from the neck of all nations, within the space of two full years; the time he
had fixed for the bringing back of the vessels of the sanctuary, Jeremiah 28:3;
and the prophet Jeremiah went his way; showing
thereby his dissent from him, and his dislike and detestation of his lies and
blasphemies; patiently bearing his affronts and insolence; and prudently
withdrawing to prevent riots and tumults; returning no answer till he had
received one from the Lord himself, which he quickly had.
Verse 12
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet,.... When in
his own house or apartment, to which he retired; and this came to him either in
a vision or dream, or by some articulate voice, or by an impulse upon his
spirit, directing him what to say to the false prophet:
after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the
neck of the Prophet Jeremiah: how long afterwards is not known, perhaps
the same day; or, however, it is certain it was in the same year, and less than
two months after, Jeremiah 28:17; and
very probably in a few hours after:
saying; as follows:
Verse 13
Go and tell Hananiah, saying, thus saith the Lord,.... Whose
name he had abused; whose prophet he had ill treated; and whose prophecies he
had contradicted, and the symbols of them had contumeliously used:
thou hast broken the yokes of wood: or, "bonds",
or "the thongs"F17מוטת עץ "lora lignea", Junius & Tremellius. ; with
which the yokes of wood were bound and fastened, as Kimchi interprets it:
but thou shall make for them yokes of iron; not Hananiah,
but Jeremiah; who should prophesy of a more severe bondage the nations should
be brought into by Nebuchadnezzar, in direct contradiction to Hananiah's
prophecy; instead of wooden yokes, they should have iron ones; which should lie
heavier, and bear harder upon them, and which could not be broken nor taken
off.
Verse 14
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... Under
which titles he is often spoken of; and which he uses, when he delivered
anything to his prophets to declare in his name to others:
I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations: mentioned in Jeremiah 27:3;
that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall
serve him; directly contrary to what Hananiah had prophesied, Jeremiah 28:11;
that his yoke should be broke off from them; but instead of that, it should
become heavier unto them, and they should be obliged to serve him, whether they
would or not; and refusing to pay tribute to him, should be carried captive by
him, as had been foretold:
and I have given him the beasts of the field also; as he had
said he would, Jeremiah 27:6; and
which is repeated, to show that the whole would be punctually fulfilled; that
not only those nations, the men, the inhabitants of them, would be delivered to
him; but even the very cattle, and all that belonged to them.
Verse 15
Then said Jeremiah the prophet unto Hananiah the prophet,.... The false
prophet, as he is again called by the Targum, and in the Syriac version; where
he went to him, and met with him, whether in the temple or elsewhere, is not
mentioned; very probably in some public place, that there might be witnesses of
what was said; for it was for the conviction of others, as well as for his own
confusion, the following things are observed:
hear now, Hananiah, the Lord hath not sent thee; though he
spoke in his name, and pretended a mission from him, when he had none, which
was abominable wickedness:
but thou makest this people to trust in a lie: that the Lord
would break off the yoke of the king of Babylon, and free the nations from
servitude to him, particularly Judea; and that the king, and his princes, and
people, and the vessels of the temple, carried away with him, would be returned
within two years; this the people depended on as coming from the Lord, when he
was not sent by him.
Verse 16
Therefore thus saith the Lord,.... Because of this
heinous offence, in lying in the name of the Lord, and deceiving the people:
behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth; with the
utmost indignation and abhorrence, as not worthy to live upon it: it signifies
that he should die, and that not a natural, but violent death, by the immediate
hand of God, by some judgment upon him; and so be by force taken off the earth,
and buried in it, and be no more seen on it:
this year thou shalt die; within the present year,
reckoning from this time; so that, had he died any time within twelve months
from hence, it would have been sufficient to have verified the prophecy:
because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord; to despise
his word by his prophet; to contradict his will; to refuse subjection to the
king of Babylon; to neglect his instructions, directions, and exhortations; and
to believe a lie.
Verse 17
So Hananiah the prophet died the same year,.... That he
had delivered out his prophecy; in the same year in which Jeremiah said he
should die; which proved him to be a false prophet, and Jeremiah to be a true
one:
in the seventh month: it was two months after
he had prophesied; for it was in the fifth month that he prophesied, and in the
seventh he died; not after seven months, as Theodoret remarks, but in two
months; so he that prophesied, that within two years what he foretold would
come to pass, in two months time dies himself, according to the word of the
Lord, and his prophecies die with him. The Jewish writers move a difficulty
here, how he should be said to die the same year, when the seventh month was
the beginning of another year; for the civil year of the Jews began from the
seventh month, or the month Tisri; as their ecclesiastical year from the month
Nisan or Abib. To solve this they observe a tradition, that he died the last
day of the sixth month, or the eve of the new year; and ordered his sons and
his servants, before his death, to hide it, and not bring him out to be buried
till after the year was begun, to make Jeremiah a liar: to which agrees the
Targum, both of the clause in Jeremiah 28:16; and
this; the former of which it paraphrases thus,
"this
year shall thou die; and in the other year (or the year following) thou shalt
be buried;'
and
this verse thus,
"and
Hananiah the false prophet died this year, and was buried in the seventh
month:'
but
there was no occasion to raise such a difficulty, since it would have been
enough to have verified the prediction, that he died any time within the twelve
months from the date of it; and, besides, the solution makes the difficulty
greater, and contradicts the very text, which says, he died in the seventh
month.
──《John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible》