1Later 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.
2Hananiah said:
3Before 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.
4I'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.'"
5Prophet Jeremiah stood up to Prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people who were in God's Temple that day.
6Prophet 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.
7But listen to me, listen closely. Listen to what I tell both you and all the people here today:
8The old prophets, the ones before our time, preached judgment against many countries and kingdoms, warning of war and disaster and plague.
9So 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."
10At that, Hananiah grabbed the yoke from Jeremiah's shoulders and smashed it.
11And then he addressed the people: "This is God's Message: In just this way I will smash the yoke of the king of Babylon and get him off the neck of all the nations - and within two years." Jeremiah walked out.
12Later, sometime after Hananiah had smashed the yoke from off his shoulders, Jeremiah received this Message from God:
13"Go back to Hananiah and tell him, 'This is God's Message: You smashed the wooden yoke-bars; now you've got iron yoke-bars.
14This is a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's own God: I've put an iron yoke on all these nations. They're harnessed to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They'll do just what he tells them. Why, I'm even putting him in charge of the wild animals.'"
15So prophet Jeremiah told prophet Hananiah, "Hold it, Hananiah! God never sent you. You've talked the whole country into believing a pack of lies!
16And so God says, 'You claim to be sent? I'll send you all right - right off the face of the earth! Before the year is out, you'll be dead because you fomented sedition against God.'"
17Prophet Hananiah died that very year, in the seventh month.