Jeremiah 28:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 28 Hananiah's false prophecy: Jeremiah's answer, Jeremiah 28:1-9. Hananiah breaketh Jeremiah's yoke: he foretelleth an iron yoke, and Hananiah's death, Jeremiah 28:10-17. Here is a great appearing difficulty, viz. how the fourth year could be called the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, who reigned in all but eleven years, which if they be divided into three parts, the fourth year can hardly be in any propriety called the beginning of his reign. Many things are said to untie this knot, which by such as are curious may be read both in the English Annotations and in Mr. Pool's Synopsis, I shall only repeat what seemed to both them, and seemeth also to me, the best solution. Though it be said in the fourth year, yet it is not said, in the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign; they therefore think, that the fourth year of the sabbatical course is here intended. The Jews had a kind of jubilee every seventh year, it was a year when the land was to rest, and not be tilled, Leviticus 25:1-4, and in that year they were to release their debtors and servants, Deuteronomy 15:1; which notion of this fourth year is very probable, if the year wherein the city was besieged was a sabbatical year, or year of rest. For if Zedekiah's first year were the fourth of the seven that made the sabbatical circle, his third year was another sabbatical year, and his tenth another, presently after which the city was taken. Of this Hananiah we read no more in Scripture; it is probable from the place where he lived, which was one of the cities of the priests, that he was a priest, but no more than a pretended prophet. He comes to Jeremiah in the temple, where he was wont to deliver his prophecies, to confront him in the presence both of the priests and the people, saying,