281 Later that same year (it was in the fifth month of King Zedekiah's fourth year) Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from Gibeon, confronted Jeremiah in the Temple of God in front of the priests and all the people who were there. 2 Hananiah said: 3 Before two years are out I'll have all the furnishings of God's Temple back here, all the things that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon plundered and hauled off to Babylon. 4 I'll also bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the exiles who were taken off to Babylon.' God's Decree. 'Yes, I will break the king of Babylon's yoke. You'll no longer be in harness to him.'" 5 Prophet Jeremiah stood up to Prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people who were in God's Temple that day. 6 Prophet Jeremiah said, "Wonderful! Would that it were true - that God would validate your preaching by bringing the Temple furnishings and all the exiles back from Babylon. 7 But listen to me, listen closely. Listen to what I tell both you and all the people here today: 8 The old prophets, the ones before our time, preached judgment against many countries and kingdoms, warning of war and disaster and plague. 9 So any prophet who preaches that everything is just fine and there's nothing to worry about stands out like a sore thumb. We'll wait and see. If it happens, it happens - and then we'll know that God sent him."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 28:1-9
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.