Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 28:16
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
16. because thou hast spoken rebellion against the Lord ] LXX omit. The words seem to have been introduced from Deu 13:5, where, however, as Gi. points out, unlike the present passage, idolatry is spoken of.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will cast thee – Rather, I send thee away. God had not sent Hananiah to prophesy, but He does now send him away to die.
Taught rebellion – As Nebuchadnezzar was Yahwehs servant, to teach rebellion against him was to teach rebellion against his Master.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 28:16
This year thou shalt die.
Thoughts on death
1. Let men live ever so many years, some one year will be the year of their death.
2. Every year is a year of death to many; there never was a year since the abbreviation of human life, since the extensive propagation and dispersion of mankind over all countries on the face of the earth, which has not been a year of death to tens of thousands,
3. Last year was a year of death to very many.
4. This year, very probably, will be a year of death to some of us. This or the other tree may be cut down; this or the other branch may be lopt off, and fall to the ground. Let us see then that we be ready, that if cut down, it may be in mercy, not in wrath; that if plucked up by the root and transplanted, it may be to be transplanted in a far better soil, where the air is more genial, where the fruits are always ripe.
5. No one of us knows but God may be saying to him or her, This year thou shalt die. Futurity is wisely hid from man; we know not the year or day of our death we need therefore constantly to watch.
6. It may be in mercy or in wrath that God is saying to this or the other one, This year thou shalt die. It was in wrath that this was said to Hananiah.
7. The year of ones death is a most eventful year to him. This dissolves our connection with the present world; it issues us into the world of spirits. If we are the Lords people, it associates us with God, Christ, angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in the state of glory and blessedness.
8. There is no outliving the appointed year of ones death. No distinction of rank, no worldly pre-eminence, no degree of riches, influence, or power, no plea of necessity, no supposed usefulness in civil or sacred society, can prevent death.
9. The year of ones death may come very unexpectedly. (Anon.)
Solemn thoughts
I. This sentence is doubtless expressive of the decision of God concerning many this year.
1. The page of history affords no record of a single year in which death desisted from his work of destruction.
2. The last year of many is now commended.
3. Various are the means by Which Gods design will be executed.
II. No individual can be certain that this does not express Gods decision concerning himself.
1. Utterly impossible for us to know who are, or are not, included in Gods appointments.
2. The circumstances of some render it most probable that this year will be their last.
3. Doubtless those who think least of death, and confidently reckon on future years, will find this sentence fulfilled.
III. It is the duty and interest of all to use wisely the gracious hours they enjoy.
1. What is it to die? To pass from this state of being into the immediate presence of our Maker and Judge.
2. Am I prepared to die?
3. Begin the year with earnest preparation. (J. Bunter.)
A sermon on the New Year
It is highly probable, that if some prophet, like Jeremiah, should open to us the book of the Divine decrees, one or other of us would there see our sentence, and the time of its execution fixed, Thus saith the Lord, This year thou shalt die. There some of us would find it written, This year thou shalt enjoy a series of prosperity, to try if the goodness of God will lead thee to repentance. Others might read this melancholy line, This year shall be to thee a series of afflictions: this year thou shalt lose thy dearest earthly support and comfort; this year thou shalt pine away with sickness, or agonise with torturing pain, to try if the kind severities of a Fathers rod will reduce thee to thy duty. Others, I hope, would road the gracious decree, This year, thy stubborn spirit, after long resistance, shall be sweetly constrained to bow to the despised Gospel of Christ. This year shalt thou be born a child of God, and an heir of happiness, which the revolution of years shall never, never, terminate. Others perhaps would read this tremendous doom, This year My Spirit so long resisted, shall cease to strive with thee; this year I will give thee up to thine own hearts lusts, and swear in My wrath thou shalt not enter into My rest. Others would probably find the doom of the false prophet Hananiah pronounced against them: Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die.
I. This year you may die.
1. Your life is the greatest uncertainty in the world.
2. Thousands have died since the last New Years Day; and this year will be of the same kind with the last; the duration of mortals; a time to die.
3. Thousands of others will die: it is certain they will, and why may not you?
4. Though you are young; for the regions of the dead have been crowded with persons of your age; and no age is the least security against the stroke of death.
5. Though you are now in health and your constitution seems to promise a long life; for thousands of such will be hurried into the eternal world this year, as they have been in years past.
6. Though you are full of business, though you have projected many schemes, which it may be the work of years to execute, and which afford you many bright and flattering prospects.
7. Though you have not yet finished your education, nor fixed in life, but are preparing to appear in the world, and perhaps elated with the prospect of the figure you will make in it.
8. Though you are not prepared for it.
9. Though you deliberately delay your preparation, and put it off to some future time.
10. Though you are unwilling to admit the thought. Death does not slacken his pace towards you, because you hate him, and are afraid of his approach.
11. Though you may strongly hope the contrary, and flatter yourself with the expectation of a length of years.
II. What if you should? If you should die this year, then all your doubts, all the anxieties of blended hopes and fears about your state and character will terminate for ever in full conviction. If you are impenitent sinners, all the artifices of self-flattery will be able to make you hope better things no longer; but the dreadful discovery will flash upon you with the resistless blaze of intuitive evidence. You will see, you will feel yourselves such. This year you may die: and should you die this year, you will be for ever cut off from all the pleasures of life. Then an everlasting farewell to all the mirth, the tempting amusements and vain delights of youth. Farewell to all the pleasures you derive from the senses, and all the gratifications of appetite. Then farewell to all the pompous but empty pleasures of riches and honours. The pleasures both of enjoyment and expectation from this quarter will fail for ever. But this is not all If you should die this year, you will have no pleasures, no enjoyments to substitute for those you will lose. Your capacity and eager thirst for happiness will continue, nay, will grow more strong and violent in that improved adult state of your nature. And yet you will have no good, real or imaginary, to satisfy it; and consequently the capacity of happiness will become a capacity of misery; and the privation of pleasure will be positive pain. If you die this year, you will not only be cut off from all the flattering prospects of this life, but from all hope entirely, and for ever. If you die in your sins, you will be fixed in an unchangeable state of misery; a state that will admit of no expectation but that of uniform, or rather ever-growing misery; a state that excludes all hopes of making a figure, except as the monuments of the vindictive justice of God, and the deadly effects of sin.
III. Is it possible to escape this impending danger?
1. Your case is not yet desperate, unless you choose to make it so; that is, unless you choose to persist in carelessness and impenitence, as you have hitherto done.
2. You all know that prayer, reading, and hearing the Word of God, meditation upon Divine things, free conference with such as have been taught by experience to direct you in this difficult work; you all know, I say, that these are the means instituted for your conversion: and if you had right views of things, and a just temper towards them, you would hardly need instruction or the least persuasion to make use of them. (S. Davies, D. D.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. This year thou shalt die] By this shall the people know who is the true prophet. Thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord, and God will cut thee off; and this shall take place, not within seventy years, or two years, but in this very year, and within two months from this time.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And because by this his doctrine he had made God a liar, contradicting his will revealed by Jeremiah, and by it taught people to hold out against Nebuchadnezzar, and not quietly to yield to him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. this year . . . dieTheprediction was uttered in the fifth month (Jer28:1); Hananiah’s death took place in the seventh month,that is, within two months after the prediction, answeringwith awful significance to the two years in which Hananiah hadforetold that the yoke imposed by Babylon would end.
rebellionopposition toGod’s plain direction, that all should submit to Babylon (Jer29:32).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore thus saith the Lord,…. Because of this heinous offence, in lying in the name of the Lord, and deceiving the people:
behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth; with the utmost indignation and abhorrence, as not worthy to live upon it: it signifies that he should die, and that not a natural, but violent death, by the immediate hand of God, by some judgment upon him; and so be by force taken off the earth, and buried in it, and be no more seen on it:
this year thou shalt die; within the present year, reckoning from this time; so that, had he died any time within twelve months from hence, it would have been sufficient to have verified the prophecy:
because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord; to despise his word by his prophet; to contradict his will; to refuse subjection to the king of Babylon; to neglect his instructions, directions, and exhortations; and to believe a lie.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here is added the punishment which confirmed the prophecy of Jeremiah; for it was God’s purpose to have regard to the ignorance of many who would have otherwise stumbled, or made their ignorance a pretext, for they could not determine which of the two had been sent by God, Hananiah or Jeremiah. It was then God’s design, in his paternal indulgence, to stretch forth his hand to them, and also in an especial manner to render inexcusable the unbelieving who had already given themselves up, as it were, to the devil; for the greater part were not moved by an event, so memorable; (200) for it follows immediately, —
(200) The last clause of this verse is not here explained. Calvin’s version is, “revolt hast thou spoken against Jehovah;” the Vulg., “against the Lord hast thou spoken;” the Syr., “iniquity hast thou spoken before the Lord;” and the Targ., “perverseness hast thou spoken before Jehovah.” Blayney’s version is, “thou hast spoken prevarication concerning Jehovah.” Gataker renders it the same with Calvin, and explains it thus, — “Because by thy lying tales thou hast heartened and encouraged men to stand out against God’s word, and against his admonitions and menaces by his prophets.” Henry gives the same view.
Blayney says that, סרה properly signifies declining or turning aside from the straight path, the path of truth and right, and that here it means the presumption of uttering as a revelation from God what a man knew to be not so. The same phrase occurs in two other places, Deu 13:5; Jer 29:32. The אל here before Jehovah is על in several MSS.; but the prepositions are sometimes the same. The rendering that would suit the three places would be the following: — “For of turning aside hast thou spoken contrary to Jehovah,” that is, to his expressed will or command. The meaning might be thus conveyed, — “for thou hast encouraged disobedience contrary to the express command of God.” — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE CRISIS YEAR
Jer 28:16
THIS is a solemn text with which to begin the year 1932, and yet, that it is true of millions of people no man can question; and, that it is true of some of those who give audience to me tonight, there can be little doubt.
Among the obligations of the minister there is none greater than to declare the truth. In fact, the test of a minister is at that point. To occupy a pulpit is not necessarily to be a prophet of God. Multitudinous pulpits are occupied by men, who like that Hananiah of this chapter, profess to have a word from the Lord, but their speech belies their claim. They are not out to tell the truththey are out to please; out to receive the popular applause! They have sensed the itching ears of the public, and propose to cash in on the same.
Consequently, sin, death, and judgment are subjects with which they have little to do. If they talk of the future at all, they paint the same in rosy colors. If they discuss the New Year it is to declare it bright with prospect, big with waiting blessings, and destined to bring to the lap of both the industrious and indigent, abundance.
Paul was not a preacher after that manner. He spoke to Felix of temperance, righteousness, and judgment. Christ was not a prophet of that order. He said to the smug, honorable and upright Nicodemus, Ye must be born again, and to the self-inflated Pharisees, Publicans and harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you!
There are times when pleasing subjects are appropriate. There are occasions when even serious subjects may be treated in light vein; but there are other occasions when serious subjects should be seriously treated.
If I sense the meaning of this first Sunday of 1932, this night is one of them. On Thursday evening last, some 500 people or more were bowed before God in the dining room of this church when 1931 died. They came from their devotions into the streets to hear the blowing of whistles, ringing of bells, blowing of horns, and many other even more frivolous methods of greeting the New Year. But the great throngs out there took little or no account of the fact that twelve long months had passed; fifty-two weeks; 365 days, or as my co-pastor said in the sermon of New Years Eve, 7,760 hours, all fraught with destiny, had been flung to the winds while the great majority forgot both the existence of God, and the momentary peril of their own unsaved souls.
It is, therefore, to arrest that thoughtlessness; it is to compel a moment of seriousness, and if possible, to secure that unspeakable blessing, the righteous settlement of the souls destiny that I speak tonight.
I want you to see these facts; Dying is a fair certainty; The time of Death is indefinite; The manner of Death is all important.
DYING IS A FAIR CERTAINTY
It is appointed unto man once to die (Heb 9:27).
Since time began there have been but two exceptionsEnoch and Elijah. Even Gods Son, when He took upon Him the form of men, when He indwelt human flesh, incurred the risk and finally endured the experience of death. Let no man, therefore, induce the conceit in you that you will probably escape the same, for while, as we shall see at a later point in this discourse, that is a possibility, it is extremely improbable; and, there is more than one, sitting in this audience tonight, listening now to what I have to say, concerning whom the text is entirely true, This year thou shalt die.
One night Jesus sat or reclined near the festal board. His twelve disciples were with Him and He said, This night one of you shall betray Me. Instantly eleven of them revealed alarm, and they began to question Him, Master, is it I? Apparently Judas Iscariot did not ask that question. The man to whom the prophecy referred was silent before it.
When the Lord says, This year thou shalt die serious minded men, and intelligent and sincere women will ask the question, Lord, is it I? But in all probability, the man to whom it refers will not at all concern himself about the matter, and when death comes, it will take him by surprise.
Death has reigned since Adams day. Paul writing to the Romans said, Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression (Rom 5:14), and we know that since Moses day, death has continued to reign and has finally conquered against every man, Enoch and Elijah excepted.
Father Ryan, in his poem To-Morrows, writing of the poets prophecy says,
Ask him, and he will see
What your to-morrows are;
Hell sing What is to be
Beneath each sun and star.
To-morrows! Dread unknown!
What fates may they not bring!
What is the chord! the tone!
The key in which they sing!
I see a thousand throngs,
To-morrows for them wait;
I hear a thousand songs
Intoning each ones fate.
And yours! What will it be!
Hush! song, and let me pray!
Ood sees it allI see
A long, lone, winding way.
And we know that for time at least, that way ends at the grave.
The only exception is the redeemed, at Christs Return. Paul does write to the Corinthians saying, We shall not all sleep (1Co 15:51), and the plain reference is to deathWe shall not all die.
In his Epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul further explains,
The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1Th 4:16-17).
It is a truth, therefore, that one whole generation of believers shall never die, namely, that generation who shall be alive at His Coming.
Some years ago the associated press carried an article from Maidsville, West Virginia, concerning a Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo D. Everly who had just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a family reunion. This fact was remarked upon, namely, that though four generations were present on that happy occasion, including eight children, twenty-two grand-children, and some great-grand-children, not one death had yet occurred in the Everly family in fifty years; but it still remained, the firm expectation that, in the course of time, death would claim the last one of them; for such is the destiny of the flesh.
In Gods family only is any exception found, and that as we have seen, obtains with reference to a single generation. Thats why it is that devout souls like Spurgeon, and consecrated spirits like A. J. Gordon, and Biblically instructed minds after the manner of Arthur Piersons, and aged saints like W. E. Blackstone, have entertained the hope that they might never die; and yet, of the four mentioned, three are gone!
Truth obtains therefore, for some, and it may be for any one of us Thou shalt die.
THE TIME OF DEATH IS INDEFINITE
The text for Hananiah fixed it only within limits, namely, this year. The month was not mentioned; the week was not named, the hour was not called, the minute was not suggested.
Of that day and hour knoweth no man. Death is a black angel who moving in mist almost always surprises his victims. It is a rare thing that a man knows that he is to die at a definite moment, or even within the limitations of an hour.
Victor Hugo in his Les Miserables, speaking of the old conventionist, brings him to the doorway of death and then puts into his lips this speech to the good priest Myriel,
I am something of a physician; I know the steps by which death approaches; yesterday my feet only were cold; today the cold has crept to my knees, now it has reached the waist; when it touches the heart, all will be over. The sunset is lovely, is it not? I had myself wheeled out to get a final look at nature. You can speak to me; that will not tire me. You do well to come to see a man who is dying. It is good that these moments should have witnesses. Every one has his fancy; I should like to live until the dawn, but I know I have scarcely life for three hours. It will be night; but what matters it: to finish is a very simple thing. One does not need morning for that. Be it so: I shall die in the starlight.
That is about as near as even the clearest minded man can make out the time, and then he only knows it because death has actually begun.
Some years ago the United News cabled to the press of America from Belgium the following statement: The well known Belgian composer, Van Hove De Saint Pol, suddenly halted a concert of light operatic music under his direction at the city of Stekene tonight, and directed the musicians to play the funeral march. The composer directed the musicians perfectly until the last note ended, when his baton dropped from his hand and he fell dead. Apparently he had felt the approach of death in the midst of the concert and only by sheer will power conducted the final piece.
These are remarkable exceptions. The rule is that death takes men unexpectedly, and the fact remains that no man knows his hour until the black enemy has arrived.
God keeps that secret with Himself! Like the return of His Son in power and glory to take His throne, He has not revealed the time.
There are people who are ill content because all secrets are not open to their eyes. So anxious are they to know the day of Christs Coming that they spend months and years in trying to work it out and give to the world the product of their wisdom. To this hour, all such endeavors have come to nought, even as Scripture has prophesied they would; and there are people who would like to know the time of their death. They would like to understand how long a time they have on earth so that they could undertake tasks with a view to completion, and they could even employ the last hours in preparation for the change. All such reasoners strangely forget that such a revelation of the future would inevitably detract from every plan conceived and every enterprise undertaken, and that for the majority of the race it would instantly destroy all human interest and leave them to sit with folded hands and morbid spirit to meet the black angel who would blight them while yet in youth.
God in His infinite wisdom knew as perfectly what things He should retain as secrets as He understood what ones He should put into the form of revelation.
How grateful we ought to be for knowledge withheld! If I am to die this year I am glad I do not know it. My plans would all be thereby disturbed; my labors would lack inspiration, and even the subjects of my love would lose an interest. Thank God for His own secrets!
With Him, however, the very second is settled.
To Hananiah the revelation was only partial. The true Prophet, Jeremiah, brought from the Lord a statement, This year thou shalt die, but He did not tell him that he would die in the seventh month even,much less did he mention the day or the hour.
Just about the time I came to this pastorate three of Gods most marvelous ministers passed from the earth,Charles Spurgeon of London, Dwight Moody of Northfield, and A. J. Gordon of Boston. They were each in their fifty-seventh year, in comparative youth, and enjoying the widest possible ministry, and exercising the most beautiful and beneficent influence. Doubtless their plans, like those of others of us, anticipated the four-score, and they were working with all the might and main of men who were at the acme of physical and mental accomplishments. Had you consulted any one of them, he would have said, If I go this year, lifes labors will be incomplete. I have plans that reach for more than a score of years beyond this time.
Ernest Gordon, in the life of his father, tells us of his passing,how for some days before the end came, he was in a delirium of fever and apparent agony of both body and mind. He declares that, though the air outside was as still as an Indian summer, the great soul complained of the ceaseless storm and of incessant noise as of great drops on a window-pane. Blackness of darkness seemed round about him, in the midst of which he cried out in his Gethsemane,
Jesus, Jesus, visit me;How my soul longs after Thee!When, my best, my dearest Friend,Shall our separation end?
But, when the final hour came and some one bending over him said, Dr. Gordon, have you a good word for us, with clear voice he answered, Victory!
Among the spokesmen at his funeral were those four mighty giants, Joseph Cook, Henry C. Mabie, President Andrews of Brown University and Dr. Arthur Pierson, and one of them said truthfully,
There is something beautiful to me in Gods taking Gordon right in his prime, in the fullness of his beauty; for we remember men as they make their last impress upon us. We shall always remember Adoniram Judson Gordon as the full-grown man, in his prime of intellect, in his prime of Christian achievement, in the midst of the glory of the work that has grown to this point and now never could decline under his hand, for his hand is no more upon it. Is not that better than for him to have grown old, to have decayed in intellectual power, to have declined in social influence, to have dimmed the majesty of his imperial scepter?
Even so, let God settle the hour. Let God fix the minute for such a change. He alone is sufficient.
Finally,
THE MANNER OF DEATH IS ALL-IMPORTANT
Hananiahs death was far from ideal. He had lived the life of a false prophet, a deceiver of his fellows, a destroyer of the true faith.
God pity such when the day of death comes. There is little wonder that reports reach us from the death-bed of Darwin that he voiced to Lady Hope his grief at what he had given to the world.
There is little wonder that Wm. R. Harper is reported to have confessed to Gunsaulus that he had missed the Way. There is little wonder that Sir Henry Drummond should have, on his deathbed, declared that in Christ and in Him alone, was there the least hope. And it is a matter of gratitude to those who admired the intellectual ability of these men that they were given the opportunity to see their error and grieve the same before they were gone.
There are three ways of dying. There is the way of the impenitent; there is the way of the penitent, and there is the way of the confident.
The first of these was illustrated by one of the thieves who died with Christ on the Cross. To his last word he reviled Him.
The second was illustrated by the other thief who rebuked the first, saying,
Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom (Luk 23:40-42).
The third is shown by Stephen whom they stoned to death, but who, at the moment of dying prayed to God to pardon his murderers and calmly committed his own spirit to the ascended Lord.
The contrasts in these ways are not strange, but they are strong. Some one has called attention to this truth as it relates to the passing of Paul, when compared with the death of impenitent unbelievers.
For instance, Goethe was a Master-mind. While he lived, he was both godly and gay; but when the end came he said, I have scarcely tasted one hour of happiness during my long life; and at the very last begged the people to open the shutters to let in the light, crying, It is growing dark; so dark!
Mirabeau, the French infidel, is said to have pled for opium with which to deaden his conscience and drive away the terrible phantoms that haunted the visions of his approaching doom.
Paul, on the contrary, approached the end after another manner. I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of (rejoicing) righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His Appearing (2Ti 4:8).
The way of the impenitent is the wretched way. I have somewhere in my scrap-book the last words of infidels and atheists. Without exception they are sad, morose, and voice fear of the future. The souls of such enter eternity revealing all the alarm of men who are beside themselves, falling into the hands of demons that drag them away to darkness and despair.
I will not harrow your feelings by the multiplied quotations that are reputed to have passed their lips. Let those from Goethe and Mirabeau suffice; but I do want to speak to you of
The passing of the penitent! This will include many who have named Christs Name, but who have not lived to His glory;many whose names have been upon the church book, but whose daily lives have not greatly honored their Lord; many who have waited upon the ministry of the sanctuary, but whose indifferent audience to the truth has left the seeds thereof to perish on stony ground.
Dr. Holden of London tells the striking story of a young man who was dyinga young man whom he had pointed to the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, He had lived a very mediocre Christian lifenot riotous, but careless! The world had claimed much of his thought and way, but now the end was on. Only a day or two at most remained, and the young man knew it. Holden went to him and said, My friend, you are quite certain that Christ has saved you, are you not? to which he answered, Yes, Dr. Holden, I think He has. I believe my soul is saved, but my life is lost. I am not afraid to die, but I confess frankly I am ashamed to die.
In conclusion, contrast these two methods with the better way.
There is the going of the godly! Dr. David Burrell, one time pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church of this city, gathered together the last words of some of the saintly men and women who have passed into the great beyond, and we give a few:
Richard Baxter: I have pain; but I have peace.
Edward Payson: The battle is fought, the victory won.
John Wesley: The best of all is, Immanuel God with us. Charles Wesley: I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness. The Mother of the Wesleys: Children, I am going; lift a song of praise.
John Fletcher: I am like a bird escaping from its cage.
Prince Albert: Rock of ages, cleft for me. Dr. Cookman: Halleluia! I am sweeping through the gates!
Mrs. Hemans: I hear the music of His voice. Lady Huntington: I am going to my Father tonight.
Philip Melancthon: Nothing now, but Heaven. Edward Perronet: All Hail the Power of Jesus Name.
Dwight Moody: Heaven is opening, earth is receding, God is calling, I am going.
Hudson Taylor, the great missionary, tells us concerning the departure of his dear wife, that when the hour came, he said to her, Darling, do you know that you are dying? She answered with surprise, Can it be so? I feel no pain, only very weary. Yes, he answered, you are dying.
You will soon be with Jesus. I am so sorry. she said; and then pausing as if fearing she might be misunderstood, she added, not because I am to be with Him; only because I have to leave you!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(16) I will cast thee . . .Literally, I send thee. The verb is the same as in the preceding verse, and is repeated with an emphatic irony.
This year thou shalt die . . .The punishment is announced, with time given for repentance. In part, perhaps, the threat may have tended to work out its own fulfilment through the gnawing consciousness of shame and confusion in the detection of the false prophets assumptions. He knew that the Lord had not sent him. Seven months passed, and then the stroke fell. It is one of the instances of the prophets work, as rooting out and pulling down (Jer. 1:10), and has its parallels in the punishment of Ananias, in Act. 5:4-5, and of Elymas, in Act. 13:11.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16, 17. This year thou shalt die A fearful pledge and earnest of the fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecies. Two months later, namely, in the seventh month, these words of prophetic judgment on one who claimed to speak in the name of Jehovah were fulfilled.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 28:16. This year thou shalt die As Hananiah had limited the accomplishment of his prophesy to the space of two years, in order to gain credit with the people by so punctual a prediction; so Jeremiah confines the proof of his veracity to a much shorter time; and the event being exactly conformable, evidently shewed the falsehood of Hananiah’s pretences.
Jeremiah commonly counts the months according to the ecclesiastical year. The seventh month answers to August and September. Compare the 17th with the first verse.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The date of this prophesy is the fourth of Zedekiah, called the beginning of his reign, or the former part, it continuing seven years longer; or because in this year he paid a visit to the king of Babylon, and received, as some suggest, a fresh investiture of his dominions, with considerable additions of territory, chap. Jer 51:59.
We have here the struggle between a false and true prophet.
1. Hananiah, the son of Azur, a false prophet, in the Lord’s house; in the presence of the priests and people, undertook to contradict all that Jeremiah had spoken, and, using the solemn preface of Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, as if he spoke by inspiration from him, confidently asserts, both that the Babylonish yoke should be broken, the vessels of the sanctuary restored, and the captive king Jeconiah, with all the prisoners, return from Babylon to Judaea; and fixes the term, within two full years. Note; The smooth tongues of lying prophets never speak reproof, but flattery. By this ye shall know them.
2. Jeremiah heard him, and immediately replied. Warm in his country’s interest, he wished nothing more ardently than its prosperity, and therefore adds his Amen, the Lord do so; the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied; as, if the Lord so pleased, he could be content to be counted a false prophet for the sake of his brethren; so unjust were all their calumnies against him, as if he desired the ruin of the nation. Though some suppose that he spoke these words ironically, fully sure, as the next words shew, of the determined destruction coming upon them; and therefore appeals to the event to prove the falsehood of Hananiah’s assertion. He reminds him, before the people, how the prophets who were before their days spoke, all of whom, to a man, had denounced God’s judgments against that and the neighbouring lands; such as Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah, Nahum; it was, therefore, rather a presumption in Jeremiah’s favour, who corresponded with them herein, that he had drank at the same fountain of inspiration; whereas the prophet which prophesied of peace, as Hananiah had done, and unconditionally, without any calls to repentance, was much to be suspected that he sought to please men; and at least the event of the prediction should be waited for, ere his claim to a divine mission should be admitted.
2nd, Enraged at such a reply,
1. Hananiah seizes the yoke which Jeremiah wore in token of the subjection of the nations by Nebuchadnezzar, and, plucking it from his neck, broke it in the presence of all the people, impiously and daringly adding this explication, which he prefaces with, Thus saith the Lord; so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. Note; (1.) Falsehood, advanced with solemnity and confidence, often gains regard. (2.) Many dare affirm that to be God’s truth, which shortly, to their own damnation, will be found to be a lie.
2. Jeremiah went his way, disdaining to contend with him; or abhorring his profaneness; or withdrawing himself from the rage that he saw kindling; or patiently sitting down under these reproaches; or to wait an answer from God.
3. He is sent back with a fearful message; probably the same day, perhaps the same hour, while the people were yet assembled before the temple, and Hananiah triumphing, as if the day was his own; but short is the triumphing of the wicked. So far should the nations be from breaking the yoke of the king of Babylon, as Hananiah had broken the yoke of wood, that it should grow more rigorous and severe, a yoke of iron; all efforts to shake it off would be fruitless, and all the foregoing prophesies, chap. Jer 27:6., &c. be to a tittle fulfilled. Such is the nation’s doom. But Hananiah has a burden peculiarly his own, the punishment of his atrocious crimes. He had pretended a commission from God, and with his name given sanction to his own lies; he had led the people with a delusive hope, to rush on their destruction; and, above all, had taught rebellion against the Lord, encouraging them to reject the warnings of the true prophets, and despise the divine admonitions; for which crimes he is doomed to death by the immediate judgment of God, within the course of that very year; which was within two months fulfilled; for he died in the seventh month, and this was the fifth: and in his doom the people might have read the certainty of their own, and the truth of all that Jeremiah had spoken; but their foolish hearts were darkened. Note; (1.) God will not suffer his prophets to be insulted with impunity. (2.) None may expect a heavier judgment than they who are hinderers of the word of God, and who seek to prejudice men’s minds against the faithful ministers of it. (3.) That sudden death is terrible indeed, which comes from God in a way of judgment.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 28:16 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
Ver. 16. Behold, I will cast thee. ] I will shortly lay thee low enough together with thy lordly looks, as D. Taylor, martyr, once told Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who reviled him and threatened him.
This year shalt thou die.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the earth = the ground, or soil.
die. According to Deu 18:20. Reference to Pentateuch
taught = spoken. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 13:5). App-92.
rebellion, &c. Zedekiah had taken an oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 24:17. 2Ch 36:13. Eze 17:15, Eze 17:18). So it was a double rebellion.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will: Gen 7:4, Exo 32:12, Deu 6:15, 1Ki 13:34, Amo 9:8
this year: Jer 28:3, Jer 20:6, Num 14:37, Num 16:28-35, Num 29:32, Deu 13:5-11
because: Eze 13:11, Eze 13:12, Act 13:8-11
rebellion: Heb. revolt, Jer 29:32, Deu 13:5, *marg.
Reciprocal: Gen 39:9 – sin Exo 9:5 – a set time 1Sa 15:23 – rebellion 1Sa 28:19 – and to morrow 1Ki 13:5 – General 1Ki 13:18 – But 1Ki 22:25 – Behold 2Ki 2:24 – cursed them 2Ch 6:23 – requiting 2Ch 18:24 – Behold Isa 5:18 – draw Isa 9:15 – the prophet Jer 27:10 – they Jer 27:15 – ye Eze 13:22 – and strengthened Amo 2:4 – and their Amo 7:17 – Thy wife Mal 2:9 – before Jam 3:6 – a world
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 28:16. Moreover, he pronounced a sentence of death upon him. He did not make his prediction in general terms as a false prophet might have done, but set the time which was to be yet that same year.