Jeremiah 27:12–28:17

¹²I said the same thing to King Zedekiah of Judah, “Submit to the king of Babylonia. Serve him and his people, and you will live. ¹³Why should you and your people die in war or of starvation or disease? That is what the Lord has said will happen to any nation that does not submit to the king of Babylonia. ¹⁴Do not listen to the prophets who tell you not to surrender to him. They are deceiving you. ¹⁵The Lord himself has said that he did not send them and that they are lying to you in his name. And so he will drive you out, and you will be killed, you and the prophets who are telling you these lies.”

¹⁶Then I told the priests and the people that the Lord had said: “Do not listen to the prophets who say that the temple treasures will soon be brought back from Babylonia. They are lying to you. ¹⁷Don’t listen to them! Submit to the king of Babylonia and you will live! Why should this city become a pile of ruins? ¹⁸If they are really prophets and if they have my message, let them ask me, the Lord Almighty, not to allow the treasures that remain in the Temple and in the royal palace to be taken to Babylonia.”

^19–20(When King Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylonia the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, and the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem, he left the columns, the bronze tank, the carts, and some of the other temple treasures.)

²¹“Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, say about the treasures that are left in the Temple and in the royal palace in Jerusalem: ²²They will be taken to Babylonia and will remain there until I turn my attention to them. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Jeremiah and the Prophet Hananiah

28^*That same year,^h in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me ²that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said: “I have broken the power of the king of Babylonia. ³Within two years I will bring back to this place all the temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylonia. ⁴I will also bring back the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, along with all the people of Judah who went into exile in Babylonia. Yes, I will break the power of the king of Babylonia. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

⁵Then in the presence of the priests and of all the people who were standing in the Temple, I said to Hananiah: ⁶“Wonderful! I hope the Lord will do this! I certainly hope he will make your prophecy come true and will bring back from Babylonia all the temple treasures and all the people who were taken away as prisoners. ⁷But listen to what I say to you and to the people. ⁸The prophets who spoke long ago, before my time and yours, predicted that war, starvation, and disease would come to many nations and powerful kingdoms. ⁹But a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as a prophet whom the Lord has truly sent when that prophet’s predictions come true.”

¹⁰Then Hananiah took the yoke off my neck, broke it in pieces, ¹¹and said in the presence of all the people: “The Lord has said that this is how he will break the yoke that King Nebuchadnezzar has put on the neck of all the nations; and he will do this within two years.” Then I left.

¹²Some time after this the Lord told me ¹³to go and say to Hananiah: “The Lord has said that you may be able to break a wooden yoke, but heⁱ will replace it with an iron yoke. ¹⁴The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that he will put an iron yoke on all these nations and that they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. The Lord has said that he will make even the wild animals serve Nebuchadnezzar.”

¹⁵Then I told Hananiah this, and added, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, and you are making these people believe a lie. ¹⁶And so the Lord himself says that he is going to get rid of you. Before this year is over you will die because you have told the people to rebel against the Lord.”

¹⁷And Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year.