Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
Then Hananiah the prophet taking the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and breaking it belongs to the controversy between Jeremiah and the false prophet Hananiah over true and false prophecy during the Babylonian captivity. The yoke involved was the wooden yoke Jeremiah wore as a sign of Judah's and the surrounding nations' subjection to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Provoked to anger by Jeremiah's test that a prophet of peace is proved only when his word comes to pass, Hananiah in the presence of all the people publicly took the yoke from Jeremiah's neck and broke it. By breaking it he signified the false claim that God would break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the necks of all nations within two full years and soon end that rule, promising prosperity.
The act opposed Jeremiah's severe warning that the people must submit to Babylon for the time God had appointed as the only course by which they could regain God's favor. By rejecting Jeremiah's message Hananiah encouraged the people to resist the true prophet's counsel and increased their hostility toward him, so they mocked his words and men in responsible positions denounced him and tried to have him put to death for faithfully delivering God's message to an unbelieving people. After this breaking of the yoke Jeremiah went his way because his work of warning the people of their danger was done. God answered that the wooden yokes would become iron, and Hananiah's claim proved false when he died that year.
Then Hananiah the prophet taking the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and breaking it belongs to the controversy between Jeremiah and the false prophet Hananiah over true and false prophecy during the Babylonian captivity. The yoke involved was the wooden yoke Jeremiah wore as a sign of Judah's and the surrounding nations' subjection to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Provoked to anger by Jeremiah's test that a prophet of peace is proved only when his word comes to pass, Hananiah in the presence of all the people publicly took the yoke from Jeremiah's neck and broke it. By breaking it he signified the false claim that God would break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the necks of all nations within two full years and soon end that rule, promising prosperity.
The act opposed Jeremiah's severe warning that the people must submit to Babylon for the time God had appointed as the only course by which they could regain God's favor. By rejecting Jeremiah's message Hananiah encouraged the people to resist the true prophet's counsel and increased their hostility toward him, so they mocked his words and men in responsible positions denounced him and tried to have him put to death for faithfully delivering God's message to an unbelieving people. After this breaking of the yoke Jeremiah went his way because his work of warning the people of their danger was done. God answered that the wooden yokes would become iron, and Hananiah's claim proved false when he died that year.