Jeremiah 28:16

28 Even because he hath sent to us in Babylon, saying, — "Long is the time, build ye houses and inhabit them; 29 Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them." (Now Zephaniah had read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet:) 30 Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying, -- 31 Send to the whole captivity, saying, — Thus saith Jehovah of Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, When I had not sent him, And has made you to trust in falsehood; 32 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, — Lo I will visit Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed; There shall not be to him a man To dwell in the midst of this people; And he shall not see the good, Which I shall do to my people, saith Jehovah; Because he has spoken rebellion against Jehovah. Index of Scripture Commentary Jeremiah [642]20 [660]21 [675]22 [705]23 [746]24 [756]25 [794]26 [819]27 [840]28 [857]29 Index of Hebrew Words and Phrases * 'sr ntty lphnyhm: [952]1 Index of Latin Words and Phrases * Yr hwn y daeth gair yr Arglwydd atto: [1242]1 * y rhai yr arogldarthasant ar eu pennau: [1253]1

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.

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 16. - I will east thee ; rather, I song thee away . Possibly, as Hitzig suggests, there is an allusion to the preceding verse, in which the same verb occurs. Thou hast taught rebellion ; literally, thou hast spoken turning aside . To "speak turning aside (or, 'rebellion')" is a phrase of Deuteronomy ( Deuteronomy 13:6 ), where it is used, as here, of opposition, not to Jehovah, but to revealed truth. Jeremiah 28:16

(16) I will cast thee . . . —Literally, I send thee. The verb is the same as in the preceding verse, and is repeated with an emphatic irony. This year thou shalt die . . .—The punishment is announced, with time given for repentance. In part, perhaps, the threat may have tended to work out its own fulfilment through the gnawing consciousness of shame and confusion in the detection of the false prophet’s assumptions. He knew that the Lord had not sent him. Seven months passed, and then the stroke fell. It is one of the instances of the prophet’s work, as “rooting out” and “pulling down” (Jeremiah 1:10), and has its parallels in the punishment of Ananias, in Acts 5:4-5, and of Elymas, in Acts 13:11.

16. this year … die—The prediction was uttered in the fifth month (Jer 28:1); 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).

The Lord's testimony against Hananiah. - Apparently not long after Jeremiah had departed, he received from the Lord the commission to go to Hananiah and to say to him: Jeremiah 28:13 . "Thus saith Jahveh: Yokes of wood hast thou broken, but hast made in place of them yokes of iron. Jeremiah 28:14 . For thus saith Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel: A yoke of iron I lay upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him; and the beasts of the field also have I given him." - When the prophet says: Yokes of wood hast thou broken, etc., we are not to understand him as speaking of the breaking of the wooden yoke Jeremiah had been wearing; he gives the deeper meaning of that occurrence. By breaking Jeremiah's wooden yoke, Hananiah has only signified that the yoke Nebuchadnezzar lays on the nations will not be so easily broken as a wooden one, but is of iron, i.e., not to be broken. The plural "yokes" is to be explained by the emblematical import of the words, and is not here to be identified, as it sometimes may be, with the singular, Jeremiah 28:10 . Jeremiah 28:14 shows in what sense Hananiah put an iron yoke in the place of the wooden one: Jahveh will lay iron yokes on all nations, that they may serve the king of Babel. Hananiah's breaking the wooden yoke does not alter the divine decree, but is made to contribute to its fuller revelation. With the last clause of Jeremiah 28:14 , cf.

Jeremiah 27:6 . - Hereupon Jeremiah forewarns the false prophets what is to be God's punishment on them for their false and audacious declarations. Jeremiah 28:15 . "Hear now, Hananiah: Jahveh hath not sent thee, and thou hast made this people to believe a lie. Jeremiah 28:16 . Therefore thus saith Jahveh: Behold, I cast thee from off the face of the earth; this year shalt thou die, for thou hast spoken rebellion against Jahveh." "The year" equals this year, as in Isaiah 37:30 . The words "for thou hast spoken," etc., recall Deuteronomy 13:6 . They involve an application to Hananiah's case of the command there given to put such a prophet to death, and show how it can with justice be said that the Lord will cast him from off the face of the earth. The verb משׁלּחך is chosen for the sake of the play on לא שׁלחך. God has not sent him as prophet to His people, but will send him away from off the earth, i.e., cause him to die. - In Jeremiah 28:17 it is recorded that this saying was soon fulfilled. Hananiah died in the seventh month of that year, i.e., two months after his controversy with Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 28:1 ).