Jeremiah 28:13
Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
Hananiah was a false prophet whom the Lord had not sent, who stood in opposition to Jeremiah and condemned his warning. He promised the people prosperity and peace instead of judgment, leading them to trust a lie. His reassuring message encouraged them to resist true counsel and deepened their hostility toward Jeremiah.
The wooden yoke was the sign of Babylon's rule and servitude, a lighter and bearable subjection that God intended for a submissive people under His plan. Breaking that wooden yoke did not end the people's subjection nor cancel God's judgment and decree.
The verse answers Hananiah's false reassurance by declaring that the broken yokes of wood would be replaced with yokes of iron. Those iron yokes meant more severe Babylonian bondage and service to Nebuchadnezzar for the nations. Submission to the announced judgment would have meant lighter punishment and bearable bondage, but rejecting God's warning brought the full rigor and severity of captivity.
God intended to restrain Babylon's king from causing loss of life and galling oppression, so that submission would have spared the people those severities. Their rejection of His counsel and preference for false promises of prosperity brought the full rigor of bondage upon them. Hananiah's death that same year confirmed Jeremiah's prophecy against him.