Jeremiah 28:3, commentary and pictures

Within two full years God would bring back to Jerusalem the vessels of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken away to Babylon — that is the false promise recorded in this verse, spoken by Hananiah. It was not a lone claim about temple furniture soon returning, but part of the conflict between Jeremiah and the false prophets over the future of the captives. Set directly against Jeremiah's severe warnings of punishment, it reassured the people that prosperity was coming.

Hananiah joined the promise of the vessels to the prediction that Judah's captives would return and Babylon's yoke would be broken, offering reassuring encouragement of quick prosperity within two years. It contradicted Jeremiah's message that the vessels and the captives would remain in Babylon until the appointed seventy years of captivity had passed. During that time God required Judah to submit to Babylon's rule for the time He had set. Their return could come only if the people repented and obeyed God and His law.

The people preferred this prediction of quick prosperity to Jeremiah's counsel. Such flattering assurances strengthened them to resist his counsel and increased their hostility toward him. Their resistance brought harsher bondage and oppression instead of the relief they wanted, while submission would have made their yoke lighter and spared them oppression. Whether a prophet's prediction is fulfilled shows whether God truly sent him.