Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 28:17

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 28:17. So Hananiah - died the same year in the seventh month. — The prophecy was delivered in the fifth month, (Jeremiah 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.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Hananiah’s false prophecy (28:1-17)

One of the temple prophets, Hananiah, publicly contradicted Jeremiah. He asserted that he had received a revelation from God that showed that within two years Babylon would be overthrown. The captive people and the temple treasures would then return to Jerusalem (28:1-4). Jeremiah replied that he wished such would be the case (5-6), but wishing for a thing does not make it come true. Some prophesy doom, others prophesy peace, but when the events take place then people will know who was right (7-9).
Hananiah, angry at Jeremiah’s words, took the yoke from him and broke it. In this way he expressed his belief that God would break the yoke of Babylon. Jeremiah did nothing, but awaited a word from God (10-11). When that word came, it announced that the nations under Babylon’s yoke would suffer even greater distress than they had so far experienced. The wooden yoke would be replaced by an iron yoke (12-14). As for the false prophet, within a few months he would die (15-16). Jeremiah’s prophecy came true, but Hananiah’s did not (17).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

GOD GAVE THE ANSWER, VINDICATING JEREMIAH

“Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Thou hast broken the bars of wood; but thou hast made in their stead bars of iron. For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all the nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah: Jehovah hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will send thee away from the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast spoken rebellion against Jehovah. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.”

“Bars of wood… bars of iron” The meaning here is that the Babylonian disaster coming upon the nations would be even worse after the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, which, of course, was finally led by Zedekiah. For Judah, it resulted in the second great siege of Jerusalem, the absolute and total destruction of the temple, and the removal of many more captives to Babylon.

“Jehovah hath not sent thee... I will send thee away from the face of the earth” There is a play upon the words here. Jehovah had indeed not “sent” Hananiah with his false prophecy, but God here promised that he would indeed be “sent” away from the face of the earth. This was a clear prophecy of the death of Hananiah; but God spelled it out for him, “this year thou shalt die.”

“Because thou hast spoken rebellion against Jehovah” This is very similar to countless other statements throughout the Bible. Note that the sentence of death here announced against Hananiah, “Accords perfectly with Deuteronomy 18:20 which declares that to prophesy falsely in the name of Jehovah, as Hananiah had done, was to commit a capital offense.”Barnes’ Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition), p. 203. This is only another example of the innumerable instances in which the discernible shadow of the Pentateuch lies over every single subsequent word in the holy Bible. As Harrison pointed out, this sudden death of Hananiah is similar to the deaths of “Pelatiah (Ezekiel 11:13) and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).”R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, p. 131.

Most current commentators treat this and the preceding two chapters as a single unit, which indeed they are; but we prefer to deal with all of these chapters as units in their own right.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

All those who had disregarded Jeremiah saw, in a manner, before their eyes the judgment of God. No surer confirmation could have been expected by the Jews, had they a particle of understanding, than to see the impostor slain by the word of Jeremiah alone; for he never touched him with a finger, nor caused him to be led to punishment, though he deserved this; but he drove him out of the world by the mere sound of his tongue. As, then, the word of the holy Prophet had a celestial and divine power, as though God himself had fulminated from heaven, or with an armed hand had slain that ungodly man, how great was their blindness not to be moved! However, they were not moved; hence some of the Rabbins, wishing to conceal, as their manner is, the reproach of their own nation, imagine that the disciples of Hananiah secretly took away his body, and that then the people knew nothing of his death. But what need is there of such an evasion as this? for Jeremiah says no such thing, but speaks of the event as well known; it was indeed a sure testimony of his own call. It hence follows that it was not unknown to the Jews; and yet the devil had so blinded the greatest part of them, that they paid no more attention to the holy man than before; on the contrary, they wholly disregarded those threatenings of which he had been the witness and herald.

But how does this appear? the greatest part of the people often rose up against him as though he was the most wicked of men; he was accused as the betrayer of his country, and hardly escaped, through the clemency of. a cruel king, when he was cast into a dungeon as one half-dead. Since, then, the Jews thus pertinaciously raged, we hence understand what the Prophet so often threatened them with, even with the spirit of giddiness, and of fury, and of madness, and of stupor, and of drunkenness. Moreover, it was needful for that small portion which was not wholly irreclaimable to be restored to the right way; and this was done by this manifest proof of Jeremiah’s call. It was also necessary on the other hand that the unbelieving should be more restrained, so that they might be condemned by their own conscience, as Paul calls heretics self-condemned who were become fixed in their own perverseness, and had willingly and designedly sold themselves as slaves to the devil.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Now in chapter 28:

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, he spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD'S house, that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon ( Jeremiah 28:1-3 ):

Now this was the prophecy that Jeremiah had spoken against earlier. Those guys were saying, "Two years. It's all coming back." And so here is Jeremiah standing there and this guy makes this prophecy.

And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and of the people that stood in the house of the LORD, Jeremiah said, [All right] So be it: may the LORD do that: and perform your words which you prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD'S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place. Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people; The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. The prophet which prophesied of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall that prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him ( Jeremiah 28:4-9 ).

Now Jeremiah says, "Look, people prophesied before and we'll believe you when we see the peace. When we see the things carried back, then we'll believe you." So this Hananiah, going one step further,

took the yoke off Jeremiah's neck, and he broke it. And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; 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. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after Hananiah had broken the yoke from off of his neck, and he said, Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; You have broken the yokes of wood; but you shall make for them yokes of iron. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; the LORD hath not sent thee; but you are making the people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year you will die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD. So Hananiah the prophet died ( Jeremiah 28:10-17 )

Within a month, actually, because this word came to Jeremiah in the fifth month. He died in two months. In the seventh month Hananiah died.

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Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Sure enough, about two months later Hananiah died (cf. Jeremiah 28:1; 2 Kings 1:17; 2 Kings 7:19-20; 2 Kings 8:10-15; Ezekiel 11:13; Acts 5:1-11). The prophet who predicted deliverance in two years died in two months. God graciously gave him two months to repent before He put him to death. His death was another object lesson to the people on the importance of obeying God’s Word.

"In chapters 26-29 the deaths of four prophets are predicted and/or reported. Of the prophets named in these chapters, only Jeremiah survives to see the fulfillment of the prophecies given to him by the LORD." [Note: Scalise, p. 58.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

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.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it.   11 And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; 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. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.   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,   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.   14 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.   15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.   16 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.   17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

      We have here an instance,

      I. Of the insolence of the false prophet. To complete the affront he designed Jeremiah, he took the yoke from off his neck which he carried as a memorial of what he had prophesied concerning the enslaving of the nations to Nebuchadnezzar, and he broke it, that he might give a sign of the accomplishment of this prophecy, as Jeremiah had given of his, and might seem to have conquered him, and to have defeated the intention of his prophecy. See how the lying spirit, in the mouth of this false prophet, mimics the language of the Spirit of truth: Thus saith the Lord, So will I break the yoke of the king of Babylon, not only from the neck of this nation, but from the neck of all nations, within two full years. Whether by the force of a heated imagination Hananiah had persuaded himself to believe this, or whether he knew it to be false, and only persuaded them to believe it, does not appear; but it is plain that he speaks with abundance of assurance. It is no new thing for lies to be fathered upon the God of truth.

      II. Of the patience of the true prophet. Jeremiah quietly went his way, and when he was reviled he reviled not again, and would not contend with one that was in the height of his fury and in the midst of the priests and people that were violently set against him. The reason why he went his way was not because he had nothing to answer, but because he was willing to stay till God was pleased to furnish him with a direct and immediate answer, which as yet he had not received. He expected that God would send a special message to Hananiah, and he would say nothing till he had received that. I, as a deaf man, heard not, for thou wilt hear, and thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. It may sometimes be our wisdom rather to retreat than to contend. Currenti cede furori--Give place unto wrath.

      III. 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. 1. The word of God, in the mouth of Jeremiah, is ratified and confirmed. Let not Jeremiah himself distrust the truth of what he had delivered in God's name because it met with such a daring opposition and contradiction. If what we have spoken be the truth of God, we must not unsay it because men gainsay it; for great is the truth and will prevail. It will stand, therefore let us stand to it, and not fear that men's unbelief or blasphemy will make it of no effect. Hananiah has broken the yokes of wood, but Jeremiah must make for them yokes of iron, which cannot be broken (Jeremiah 28:13; Jeremiah 28:13), for (says God) "I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, which shall lie heavier, and bind harder, upon them (Jeremiah 28:14; Jeremiah 28:14), that they may serve the king of Babylon, and not be able to shake off the yoke however they may struggle, for they shall serve him whether they will or no;" and who is he that can contend with God's counsel? What was said before is repeated again: I have given him the beasts of the field also, as if there were something significant in that. Men had by their wickedness made themselves like the beasts that perish, and therefore deserved to be ruled by an arbitrary power, as beasts are ruled, and such a power Nebuchadnezzar ruled with; for whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive. 2. Hananiah is sentenced to die for contradicting it, and Jeremiah, when he has received commission from God, boldly tells him so to his face, though before he received that commission he went away and said nothing. (1.) The crimes of which Hananiah stands convicted are cheating the people and affronting God: Thou makest this people to trust in a lie, encouraging them to hope that they shall have peace, which will make their destruction the more terrible to them when it comes; yet this was not the worst: Thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord; thou hast taught them to despise all the good counsel given them in God's name by the true prophets, and hast rendered it ineffectual. Those have a great deal to answer for who, by telling sinners that they shall have peace though they go on, harden their hearts in a contempt of the reproofs and admonitions of the word, and the means and methods God takes to bring them to repentance. (2.) The judgment given against him is, "I will cast thee off from the face of the earth, as unworthy to live upon it; thou shalt be buried in it. This year thou shalt die, and die as a rebel against the Lord, to whom death will come with a sting and a curse." This sentence was executed, Jeremiah 28:17; Jeremiah 28:17. Hananiah died the same year, within two months; for his prophecy is dated the fifth month (Jeremiah 28:1; Jeremiah 28:1) and his death the seventh. Good men may perhaps be suddenly taken off by death in the midst of their days, and in mercy to them, as Josiah was; but this being foretold as the punishment of his sin, and coming to pass accordingly, it may safely be construed as a testimony from Heaven against him and a confirmation of Jeremiah's mission. And, if the people's hearts had not been wretchedly hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, it would have prevented their being further hardened by the deceitfulness of their prophets.