John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 28:12-13

"Then the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Thou hast broken the bars of wood; but thou hast made in their stead bars of iron." — Jeremiah 28:12-13 (ASV)

It thus appears that Jeremiah considered only the common benefit of the people, and that he wisely kept silent for a time, so that he might not throw pearls before swine and thus, in a way, expose the holy name of God to the insolence of the ungodly.

He therefore waited until he could go out again with new messages, and thus secure more credibility for himself. For if he had contended longer with Hananiah, arguments would have been ignited on every side, no one would have listened in the uproar, and the Jews would have completely disregarded anything he might have said then.

But since he had withdrawn from the crowd and was afterwards sent by God, the Jews could not have despised him or his doctrine so presumptuously. This, then, was the reason he was silent for a short time.

Even if he feared and trembled in the midst of these disturbances, God at the proper time confirmed him by giving him new commands: The word of Jehovah, he says, came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah broke the band from his neck.

By these words he indicates that the ungodly, however insolently they may rise up against God, always depart with shame and reproach. For Hananiah had not only opposed Jeremiah with his words and tongue, but had also broken the cords or bands from his neck.

This, then, the Prophet now repeats, so that he might show, as it were, with his finger, that Hananiah by his audacity gained nothing, except that he made his own futility more notorious.

Now, it is an abrupt sentence when he says, Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah, You have broken the wooden bands; but make for yourself iron bands. Jeremiah does not address the same party consistently, for in the first clause he recounts what he had been commanded to say to Hananiah, and in the second he recounts what God had commanded him, Jeremiah, to do, namely, to make iron bands.

But the meaning is not obscure, for undoubtedly the Prophet could have arranged his words this way: "You have broken the bands from my neck; but God has commanded me to make new ones from iron."

Although Jeremiah, then, only tells us here that God commanded him to make iron bands, it can still be easily concluded that when he spoke of wooden bands he at the same time added what he says about iron bands, but in a different context. The explanation now follows: