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Dispute with Hananiah
[5] Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of
the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord; [6] and
the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the
words which you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from
Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. [7] Yet hear now
this word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. [8]
The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, fa-
mine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. [9] As for the
prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass,
then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”
[10] Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah
the prophet, and broke them. [11] And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all
the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebu-
chadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.”
But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.
[12] Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the
neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: [13] Go,
tell Hananiah, ‘Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars, but I will
make in their place bars of iron. [14] For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God
of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke of servitude
to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to
him even the beasts of the field.” [15] And Jeremiah the prophet said to the pro-
phet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made
this people trust in a lie. [16] Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will remove
you from the face of the earth. This very year you shall die, because you have
uttered rebellion against the Lord.” [17] In that same year, in the seventh month,
the prophet Hananiah died.
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Commentary:
28:1-17. The reaction of the prophets and priests to what they saw as impertin-
ence on Jeremiah’s part (27:1-22) is not slow in coming.
Hananiah, claiming that he too is a prophet with a message from the Lord, replies
to Jeremiah by saying that very soon — within two years — the whole situation will
change for the better (v. 3). Jeremiah, in turn, says that he would like nothing bet-
ter (for he loves his land and his people); but earlier prophets predicted misfor-
tunes, and they occurred; favourable predictions are proven to be the word of
God only when and if they come true. Hananiah does not give away. His arro-
gance (vv. 10-11) leads Jeremiah to repeat his message (vv. 12-14). The on-
lookers may have taken different sides, but two months later (much less than two
years) it will be easy to see who the false prophet was and who the true (vv. 15-
17). And the threat contained in the book of Deuteronomy will he carried out: “But
the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not comman-
ded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet
shall die. […] [W]hen a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does
not come to pass or come true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken; the
prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him” (Deut 18:20;
cf. Deut 13:6).
This debate in the presence of the people illustrates a problem that often arises
in Holy Scripture, and in a way it is a perennial one: How can one know whether
someone is truly a prophet sent by the Lord, when a number of prophets preach
messages that are mutually incompatible? In ancient Israel, if a prediction came
true, then one knew that the prophet was speaking on God’s behalf. In the new
People of God, the Holy Spirit helps the Church to discern whether a person’s
message comes from God, that is, whether he or she has a true charism:
“These charisms, whether they be the more outstanding or the more simple and
widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation for they are
perfectly suited to and useful for the needs of the Church. Extraordinary gifts are
not to be sought after, nor are the fruits of apostolic labor to be presumptuously
expected from their use; but judgment as to their genuineness and proper use
belongs to those who are appointed leaders in the Church, to whose special
competence it belongs, not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things
and hold fast to that which is good” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 12).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.