Jeremiah 28

About 593 BC, just around seven years before Babylon burned and leveled Jerusalem. “The fifth month” would have been Av, from about mid-July to mid-August. But the Hebrew text leaves us guessing about the dates and wondering if there’s an editorial mistake. The text could read as though it’s the first year of Zedekiah’s reign and yet the fourth year. So, scholars have to do what we did—go with a guess and call a spade a spade—and a guess a guess.

Gibeon has been linked to a dirt mound of ruins called Tel el-Jib less than a day’s walk west of Jericho. Archaeologists found jar handles there stamped “Gibeon.” The city was on hills overlooking the Jordan River Valley, about 16 miles (25 km) away. Gibeon was one kilometer higher (over half a mile) than the Jericho plains. Gibeon’s ruins are now on the northern outskirts of today’s Jerusalem. But in King Solomon’s time, it was about seven miles (11 km) north, roughly a two-hour walk.

Babylonians deported the people of Judah once before the massive exile in 586 BC. About a decade earlier, in 597 BC, invading Babylonians took treasures from the Temple along with Judah’s top leaders

Perhaps Hananiah thought that breaking the yoke would illustrate that his prophecy was coming true, beginning now. Or maybe he was mad about the barely veiled insult.

Jeremiah 27:3.

He died “in the seventh month” of the year. That’s the Jewish month of Tishrei, from mid-September to mid-October. He had delivered a fake prophecy and broken Jeremiah’s yoke in the fifth month (28:1).