Jeremiah 28 Study Notes

28:5-6 Jeremiah responded to Hananiah’s brazen prediction with an Amen! Whether he did so sarcastically or because he was thrown off balance since Hananiah’s prophecy disputed everything God had shown him up to this point, we cannot say for sure.

28:7-9 Jeremiah reminded Hananiah that the prophets who had preceded them spoke of war, disaster, and plague. Prophets who prophesied peace had to show they were genuine by the fulfillment of their words (Dt 13:1-5; 18:15-22). So Hananiah was running against the grain not only of Jeremiah’s words but of the messages of all the prophets from the past.

28:10-11 By opposing the word of the Lord, Hananiah had allied himself with the serpent in the garden of Eden.

28:12-14 The Lord told Jeremiah to make an iron yoke bar because Hananiah had made Jeremiah’s word about God’s judgment all the more certain and hardened.

28:15-17 In another wordplay the Lord declared that since he had not sent Hananiah to prophesy, he would send him off the face of the earth. Two months later Hananiah died. We are not told how this happened or if God caused his death, but the reason for his death is that he had preached rebellion against the Lord (see Dt 13:5).