Jeremiah 21-36 A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by (Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries)

342 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS

hearing the narrative as we have it before us, there was no longer any doubt

that Jeremiah was the true prophet speaking a true word and Hananiah a false

prophet speaking a lie (Childs 1985: 140-41).

An audience hearing this narrative following the narrative of chap. 27 would

appreciate how things at the time were building to a grand climax. Jeremiah's

word mandating submission to the king of Babylon is given first to foreign en-

voys visiting the city, then to King Zedekiah, and then to priests and the people

of Jerusalem. When will it be spoken to the prophets? The audience knows

that they were the ones most offended, because Jeremiah had been telling

everyone not to listen to them. What comes now in chap. 28 is a face-to-face

meeting between Jeremiah and a lead prophet of the opposition. This has to

rank as one of the most extraordinary encounters between true and false proph-

ets in the Bible, comparable only with the meeting of Elijah and the prophets

of Baal on Mount Carmel, where Yahweh's word and truth itself shines forth

with unbelievable clarity.

In the NT, in the Acts of the Apostles, the following incident is reported:

But a man named Ananias, with the consent of his wife Sapphira, sold a

piece of property; with his wife's knowledge, he kept back some of the pro-

ceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet. "Ananias,"

Peter asked, "why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and

to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?" ... Now when Ananias

heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who

heard of it. ... After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not

knowing what had happened .... Then Peter said to her, "How is it that

you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look,

the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they

will carry you out." Immediately she fell down at his feet and died ....

And great fear seized the whole church and all who heard of these things.

(Acts 5:1-11, NRSV)

Savonarola, prophet-friar of the late fifteenth century, predicted from his pulpit
in Florence that Fra Mariano, who had preached a vicious sermon against him
and was presently in Rome conspiring for his downfall, would die. The follow-
ing year he did die. Savonarola predicted other deaths, e.g., that of King Charles
VIII of France in 1497, which came to pass a year later (Ridolfi 1959: 186-89).

F. Letters to the Exiles (29: 1-32)

1. Bloom Where You Are Planted! (29:1-23)

29 1 And these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent

from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders of the exile, and to the priests

and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar exiled