being fomented by prophets—two of them are named in verse 21—who were “prophesying a lie”, almost certainly the same kind of lie that Hananiah was spreading in Jerusalem, that the days of the Babylonian Empire were numbered and that the exiles would soon be back home in Jerusalem. The uncertain political scene in Babylon (see p.53) may have encouraged the Jewish exiles to adopt a policy of non-cooperation with their Babylonian masters or even to begin planning a bid for freedom. To counteract the