Clashes with false prophets: the debate over policyA close look at Jeremiah’s clashes with false prophets and with royal officials, even
with kings, especially with Zedekiah, offers an additional perspective on both the
political and the cultic-moral agendas of the prophet. The people’s first sin is failure
to heed the words of the prophets sent by Yahweh. Thus, Jer 25 : 2 – 4 :
That which Jeremiah the prophet delivered to the entire people of Judah and to
all the residents of Jerusalem, as follows: Since the thirteenth year of Josiah son
of Amon, king of Judah, and until this very day, these three and twenty years,
the word of Yahweh came to me. And I spoke to you, beginning to speak early
in the day, but you did not heed. Indeed, Yahweh sent to you all of his prophets,
sending them early on, but you did not heed, nor did you bend your ear to listen.Admitting some imprecision in both the synchronous, and the internal chronologies,
the point of specifying the span of twenty-three years in Jeremiah’s speech may be
suggestive. It is as if to say that the imminent crisis harks back to the very inception
of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 626 / 625 , which corresponds to the thirteenth year
of Josiah. If there is anything to this innuendo, Jeremiah’s complaint would qualify
as a sage historical hindsight. It is as if to say that, inevitably, the Neo-Babylonian
Empire would vie with Egypt for hegemony in the Levant once the Neo-Assyrian
Empire lost its power, and that Babylonia would, with occasional setbacks, prevail.
Indeed, this speech of Jeremiah is best understood as a reaction to Jehoiakim’s rebellion
against Nebuchadnezzar.
A related concern is the activism of false prophets who not only tormented Jeremiah,
personally, but who grievously misled the people. This is the subject of Jeremiah 23 ,
which expresses several related themes. The one most relevant to the present discussion
is the seduction of the people through false prophecies of well being and peace; the
notion that the Babylonian “misfortune” will not overtake them ( Jer 23 : 17 ). Jeremiah
had insisted that it would, indeed ( Jer 23 : 12 ). In language and theme, Jeremiah 23
recalls earlier prophecies of Jeremiah, where we likewise encounter assurances of ˇa ̄ lôms
by false prophets (cf. Jeremiah 6 and 7 , as examples).
The most notable episode of conflict with a “false prophet,” one of several, is that
with Hananiah, recounted in Jeremiah 28 , and dated to Zedekiah’s fourth year, hence,
also in 594 BCE. This account may be seen as a take-off on Jeremiah 27 , discussed
above. In effect, the admonition of Jer 27 : 9 – 20 is applied to Hananiah, a prophet
from Gibeon, which, we are told, took place in the Temple of Jerusalem, in the
presence of the priests and the people assembled. Like Jeremiah, Hananiah officially
speaks in the name of Yahweh: he predicts that in two years Yahweh will restore all
the vessels and all the exiles taken to Babylon along with Jehoiachin to Jerusalem,
for Yahweh will break the yoke of the king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar. Hananiah
symbolically breaks off the yoke that Jeremiah was wearing ( Jer 27 : 2 ). Jeremiah is
quick to mock Hananiah, saying that he would wish for nothing better than to see
his prophecy fulfilled, but that it was not to be. Some of Jeremiah’s words bear
repeating:
— The view from Jerusalem —