Jeremiah 28

The Yokes of Wood and of Iron

A prophet from Gibeon promises in the temple that Babylon's yoke will be broken within two years, breaks Jeremiah's wooden yoke to prove it, and learns that the Lord has made it iron.

The fourth year of Zedekiah, in the fifth month (verse 1); Zedekiah reigned 597–586 B.C. by the Bible Dictionary. Hananiah dies in the seventh month of the same year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 28 is the second half of one story. In chapter 27 the Lord told Jeremiah to make bonds and yokes, put them on his own neck, and send word to the kings of the neighboring…

Chapter 28 is the second half of one story. In chapter 27 the Lord told Jeremiah to make bonds and yokes, put them on his own neck, and send word to the kings of the neighboring countries that they must serve Nebuchadnezzar. Chapter 28 opens “the same year,” in the temple, before the priests and the people, with another man who says he is a prophet and who says the opposite.

The setting is Zedekiah's reign. Nebuchadnezzar had already taken Jehoiachin, the king's officers, and the temple treasures to Babylon, and Zedekiah, the king he left on the throne, “began to look for ways to break the Babylonian yoke.” The Bible Dictionary groups chapters 26–29 together as the chapters “on the false prophets,” and the chapter heading in the Church's edition gives this one in a sentence: “Hananiah prophesies falsely that the Babylonian yoke will be broken.”

The story is told in a single scene with three beats: Hananiah's promise (verses 1–4), the exchange of replies that sets the test (verses 5–9), and the breaking of the yoke, with the Lord's answer through Jeremiah (verses 10–17). Verses 5–9 are the hinge. Jeremiah neither confirms nor denies Hananiah's message on the spot; he says what will settle it.

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 28 is about how a people could tell which of two prophets was sent, when both spoke in the Lord's name and one said what they wanted to hear.

Jeremiah 28 is about how a people could tell which of two prophets was sent, when both spoke in the Lord's name and one said what they wanted to hear.

The two men use the same title for God, stand in the same temple, and make claims about the same event. They differ in what they promise: Hananiah, a quick return and peace; Jeremiah, a long captivity and, afterward, a return. The people had already been told Jeremiah's side (Jer. 27:16–17), and the other was the welcome one.

The chapter gives two answers to how one could tell. One is the test of fulfilment, which Jeremiah states in verse 9 and which was written into the law (Deut. 18:20–22). The other is that a prophet must be sent: “The LORD hath not sent thee” (verse 15). The two men also act differently when the sign is staged: Hananiah breaks the yoke, and Jeremiah walks away until the Lord speaks. The chapter ends with the test applied: within the year Hananiah is dead, and the yoke he said was broken is made of iron.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–4

Hananiah's promise

In plain words

In the same year, the fourth of Zedekiah's reign, in the fifth month, Hananiah son of Azur, a prophet from Gibeon, spoke to Jeremiah in the Lord's house before the priests and all the people. He said: “The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylon. I will also bring back Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”

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,

Context #

A prophet from Gibeon

Hananiah is a prophet not otherwise known, from a town in Benjamin a few miles north of Jerusalem.

Hananiah is a prophet not otherwise known, from a town in Benjamin a few miles north of Jerusalem. Gibeon sat “on one of the hills of Benjamin, about five miles north of Jerusalem,” and it is listed among the cities of Benjamin given to the Levites (Josh. 21:17). One reading draws the conclusion that Hananiah was therefore “possibly… himself a priest,” which would explain why he could speak in the temple before the priests and all the people; the verse itself does not say so.

What the text does say is how carefully he borrows Jeremiah's voice. His opening, “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,” is the divine title “so often used by Jeremiah.” To hear him was not to hear an outsider. Nothing in the first four verses would tell a listener that the man was not sent.

Sources: “Gibeon, Gibeonites”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Imagery #

The yoke

In Jeremiah the yoke stands for submission to Babylon: “A yoke is something put on the neck for the purpose of carrying burdens.

In Jeremiah the yoke stands for submission to Babylon: “A yoke is something put on the neck for the purpose of carrying burdens. The yoke symbolized captivity or slavery.” In the previous chapter the Lord told Jeremiah to “make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,” and to send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon (Jer. 27:2–3). Ambassadors from several of these countries “had come to Zedekiah with the proposal that unitedly they could defeat Babylon,” and Jeremiah wore the yoke to show that submission was the Lord's will.

The message of the yoke is that Nebuchadnezzar rules by the Lord's gift: “now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant” (Jer. 27:6). To Zedekiah himself Jeremiah said, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live” (Jer. 27:12). So when Hananiah says that the Lord “has broken” the yoke, he is not offering a pleasant detail. He is reversing what the Lord had just said.

Sources: Jeremiah 27–28: The Yoke of Babylon, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, 161. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

3 Within two full years 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, and carried them to Babylon:

Context #

Two years against seventy

Hananiah promises a return of the temple vessels and the exiles within two years, a short and checkable date, where Jeremiah had spoken of seventy.

Hananiah promises a return of the temple vessels and the exiles within two years, a short and checkable date, where Jeremiah had spoken of seventy. On one reading, the Hebrew behind “two full years” (literally “two years in days”) makes the date “as definite as possible.”

What he promises is what the people had lost. Nebuchadnezzar had earlier “cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple,” and carried Jehoiachin to Babylon with the king's mother, wives, and officers (2 Kgs. 24:13–15). Jeremiah calls the same king Jeconiah: “Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah” (Jer. 27:20), and Hananiah uses that name in verse 4.

Jeremiah had said that “these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jer. 25:11), and his letter to the exiles repeats it: “after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you… in causing you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:10). He had also said that the vessels still in Jerusalem would go to Babylon “until the day that I visit them… then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place” (Jer. 27:22). So the dispute is not about whether the exiles come home. It is about when, and whether anything must happen first.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

4 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.

Related Scriptures #

The yoke the Lord will break

The Lord does promise to break a yoke, but in a later day and with a stated purpose.

The Lord does promise to break a yoke, but in a later day and with a stated purpose. In the chapters on “the latter-day restoration of Israel and the gospel covenant,” He says: “I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds… But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them” (Jer. 30:8–9). Hananiah's promise has the first half of that sentence and not the second.

The same image of bands on the neck appears in Isa. 52:2, and Latter-day Saint scripture explains those bands in D&C 113:10: they “are the curses of God upon her, or the remnants of Israel in their scattered condition among the Gentiles.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Verses 5–9

Jeremiah's answer

In plain words

Jeremiah answered Hananiah before the priests and all the people: “Amen. May the Lord do so, and bring back the vessels and all the captives from Babylon. But hear this word. The prophets before you and me, from long ago, prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. The prophet who prophesies peace will be known as truly sent by the Lord when his word comes true.”

5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,

6 Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’s house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

Language #

What Jeremiah means by “Amen”

Jeremiah's “Amen” is not agreement with Hananiah, and verse 7 qualifies it at once with “Nevertheless.”

Jeremiah's “Amen” is not agreement with Hananiah, and verse 7 qualifies it at once with “Nevertheless.” His reply “did not mean he approved,” and its tone can be read two ways: as “sarcastic, a challenge to see whose prophecies would be fulfilled,” or as words that “might have been said ironically or as an expression of desire that the people would repent and make such blessings possible.”

The text allows either: Jeremiah says he would like Hananiah to be right (“the LORD perform thy words”) and then, in verses 8–9, tells him what would show whether he is.

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Jeremiah 20–29, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual.

7 Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;

8 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.

9 The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.

Related Scriptures #

The test of a prophet

Jeremiah's test is the one the law gave: a prophet's word must come to pass.

Jeremiah's test is the one the law gave: a prophet's word must come to pass. “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken” (Deut. 18:22). Jeremiah's reply comes to this: “the prophet whose words come to pass is the one chosen by the Lord.” Time will show who is right.

Verse 8 gives his reason for putting the burden on the prophet of peace. The prophets “before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.” On one reading, a prophet who “predicts nothing but peace and safety” against all those earlier witnesses can make good his claim only by seeing his prediction fulfilled.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Jeremiah 27–28: The Yoke of Babylon, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, 161. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Verses 10–11

The yoke is broken

In plain words

Hananiah took the yoke from Jeremiah's neck and broke it. He said before all the people, “The Lord says, ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within two years.’” And Jeremiah went on his way.

10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.

Imagery #

A sign answered with a sign

Hananiah answers Jeremiah's acted prophecy with one of his own. “To dramatize his prophecy, Hananiah broke the yokes off Jeremiah's shoulders, predicting that God would do the…

Hananiah answers Jeremiah's acted prophecy with one of his own. “To dramatize his prophecy, Hananiah broke the yokes off Jeremiah's shoulders, predicting that God would do the same to Judah's Babylonian yoke.” He is repeating Jeremiah's own method: Jeremiah had worn the yoke as a sign, and Hananiah breaks it as a counter-sign.

The two men then act differently. Hananiah does not wait for the outcome Jeremiah had named; he breaks the yoke and announces the Lord's word himself (verse 11). The text says only that Jeremiah “went his way,” and the word of the Lord came to him afterward (verse 12).

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

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.

Related Scriptures #

Why the people believed Hananiah

The people had reasons to prefer Hananiah, and scripture says what they were.

The people had reasons to prefer Hananiah, and scripture says what they were. In Jeremiah's day the prophets told them “Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place,” and the Lord answers that He “sent them not” (Jer. 14:13–15). They say “Ye shall have peace” to people who walk “after the imagination of his own heart” (Jer. 23:17). The Lord says of them, “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran” (Jer. 23:21).

Samuel the Lamanite names the pattern in Book of Mormon times. People who claim they would have honored the prophets of old are angry at one who “testifieth of your sins and iniquities,” while to a man who says “Do this, and there is no iniquity… ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet… because he speaketh flattering words unto you, and he saith that all is well” (Hel. 13:26–28). Hananiah's message was welcome news about Babylon; Jeremiah's was not.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 12–17

Wood, iron, and death

In plain words

After Hananiah had broken the yoke, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Go and tell Hananiah that the Lord says, ‘You have broken wooden yokes, but in their place you will make yokes of iron. I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations to serve Nebuchadnezzar, and they will serve him. I have given him even the wild animals.’” Then Jeremiah said, “Listen, Hananiah. The Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust a lie. So the Lord says, ‘I will send you off the face of the earth. This year you will die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’” Hananiah died that year, in the seventh month.

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.

Imagery #

Wood and iron

The yoke Hananiah broke was only the sign, and the thing it stood for was not broken.

The yoke Hananiah broke was only the sign, and the thing it stood for was not broken. The Lord's answer was “simple and powerful: the yokes of wood would become yokes of iron,” and He has laid the iron yoke on “all these nations.”

Verse 14 ends “and I have given him the beasts of the field also,” which is the language of the Lord's earlier word about Nebuchadnezzar: “the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him” (Jer. 27:6). The Lord does not change the message in chapter 28; He repeats it, in a harder metal.

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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.

Latter-day Prophets #

A prophet has to be sent

The charge against Hananiah is not that he was a poor speaker or a bad guesser.

The charge against Hananiah is not that he was a poor speaker or a bad guesser. It is that he was not sent. The Lord says the same of the prophets among the exiles, in Jeremiah's letter to them: “they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them” (Jer. 29:9). The same principle stands in the fifth Article of Faith: “We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority” (A of F 1:5); and the Lord said that no one is to preach “except he be ordained by some one who has authority, and it is known to the church that he has authority” (D&C 42:11).

Joseph Smith also taught that a false prophet does not look false: “False prophets always arise to oppose the true prophets and they will prophesy so very near the truth that they will deceive almost the very chosen ones.” Hananiah fits that description. His title for God and his place in the temple were Jeremiah's, and the future he described, the exiles home, was one Jeremiah himself said he wished for. What he lacked was the Lord's commission, and what he said instead led the people to trust “a lie.”

Sources: Jeremiah 20–29, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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.

Language #

Sent away, and a charge from the law

The verse is built on a play on the word “sent.” In Hebrew, “The LORD hath not sent thee” (verse 15) and “I will cast thee from off the face of the earth” use the same verb…

The verse is built on a play on the word “sent.” In Hebrew, “The LORD hath not sent thee” (verse 15) and “I will cast thee from off the face of the earth” use the same verb (shalach, to send): the Lord says that He did not send Hananiah, and that He will send him away. The verb is, on one reading, “chosen for the sake of the play,” and the Hebrew text shows the repetition.

“Taught rebellion against the LORD” (Hebrew sarah dibbarta, “thou hast spoken rebellion”) uses the same two words (dibber sarah) that the law used against a prophet who tries to turn Israel away from God: “that prophet… shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God” (Deut. 13:5). Jeremiah's words “recall” that law and apply its penalty. The lexicon defines sarah as “rebellion, defection, apostasy.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

Context #

Died in the seventh month

Hananiah died within two months of the confrontation, in the seventh month of the year in which he had spoken in the fifth (Jer. 28:1), long before his “two full years” could expire.

Hananiah died within two months of the confrontation, in the seventh month of the year in which he had spoken in the fifth (Jer. 28:1), long before his “two full years” could expire. His death “should have convinced Zedekiah and the people which of these two men was the true prophet, but they were too hardened to respond.”

The verse records only the death, with no comment. The people who had heard both men saw the prophecy fulfilled within the year, and Zedekiah went on to look “for ways to break the Babylonian yoke” and, “ignoring the repeated warnings of Jeremiah, he rebelled.”

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 28

The chapter sets two yokes against each other, and Jesus names a third. Hananiah says the yoke of Babylon is broken, and the Lord answers with iron. In the later prophecies of Jeremiah the Lord promises Himself to break the yoke, when His people will “serve the LORD their God, and David their king” (Jer. 30:8–9), a king the chapter heading in the Church's edition identifies as “the Messiah.” Jesus invites: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:29–30). Hananiah's message was welcome and false; Jesus' invitation is to a different yoke, which He calls easy.

Worth exploring next

How to know who is sent. Read Deut. 18:20–22, D&C 42:11–12, D&C 46:7, and A of F 1:5, the passages the seminary study guide pairs with Jeremiah 27–28.
Prophets of peace. Read Jer. 14:13–15, Jer. 23:16–22, and Hel. 13:25–28.
The yoke of Babylon. Read Jer. 27, Jer. 29:1–10, and Jer. 30:8–9.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Gibeon, Gibeonites”, Bible Dictionary.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Jeremiah 27–28: The Yoke of Babylon, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, 161.
Jeremiah 20–29, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

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