Jeremiah 28:2 - Exposition

Hananiah opens his prophecy with the usual formula, claiming Divine inspiration in the fullest sense. His message is short and sweet: I have broken— i.e. I have decreed to break (the perfect of prophetic certitude)— the yoke of the king of Babylon . Had Hananiah stopped here, he might, perhaps, have escaped Jeremiah's indignant rebuke. But with light-hearted arrogance he ventures to fix a time close at hand for the event, which, no doubt, was destined to occur, but after a long interval. Dr. Payne Smith suggests that he probably cherished the belief that the confederacy then on foot ( Jeremiah 27:3 ) would defeat Nebuchadnezzar.