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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Hananiah
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1. One of the singer Heman's 14 sons; chief of the 16th of the 24 courses into which the 288 Levite musicians were divided by king David; employed chiefly to "lift up the horn" (-5; ).
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4. Son of Azur, the prophet of Gibeon, a priests' city (Jeremiah 28). In the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign Hananiah, in opposition to Jeremiah, foretold that Jeconiah and the captives at Babylon would return with all the vessels of the Lord's house within two years. This hope rested on Pharaoh Hophra (Apries). Judah already had designed a league with Edom, Ammon, Moab, Tyre, and Sidon against Babylon. Their ambassadors had therefore come to Jerusalem, but were sent back with yokes and a divine message from Jeremiah that their several masters must submit to Nebuchadnezzar's yoke, to whom God had given these lands and the very beasts of the field, or else be punished with sword, famine, and pestilence (Jeremiah 27).
Hananiah broke off the yokes on Jeremiah's neck, in token of God's breaking off Nebuchadnezzar's yoke. Compare -24-25. Jeremiah said Amen, praying it might be so; but warned him that for the broken wooden yokes he should have iron yokes, adding "Hananiah, the Lord hath not sent thee, but thou makest this people trust in a lie ... therefore ... this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah died the same year in the 7th month." In Zedekiah's 6th year the league with Pharaoh Hophra tempted Zedekiah to open revolt in violation of his oath to Nebuchadnezzar (-20).
A temporary raising of the siege of Jerusalem, through the Egyptian ally, was soon followed by the return of the Chaldaean army, the capture of Jerusalem, and the blinding of Zedekiah and his removal to Babylon (). Each claimant to inspiration, as Hananiah, must stand two tests: does his prophecy accord with past revelations of God's word? does the event verify it? Hananiah failed in both. Moreover, he promised sinners peace and safety without repentance. Hananiah's namesake in New Testament is a similar warning in stance of God' s vengeance on the man "whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" (Acts 5); a foretaste of the final retribution ().
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7. (See SHADRACH; ANANIAS.) Of the house of David (; -7; ; ; ).
8. . Identified by some with Joanna (the Jah or Jehovah being put at the beginning instead of at the end, as in Hanan-jah, "graciously given by Jehovah"), .
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10. -28; ; ; , compare .
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12. Ruler of the palace (as Eliakim "over the house" of Hezekiah) along with Hanani, Nehemiah's brother, at Jerusalem. -3, "a faithful man who feared God above many." (See ELIAKIM.) Had charge concerning setting watches, and opening and shutting the city gates. Prideaux argues from this Nehemiah at this time returned to Persia; but his presence in Jerusalem some time after the wall's completion is implied in -65; ; . Moreover, Gesenius (from ) thinks habbirah in means not the governor's (tirshatha) palace, but the fortress of the Lord's "house"; in this case Hananiah was a priest. But the charge as to the city gates implies a civil, not a sacerdotal, office. The Hebrew for "over (al) Jerusalem" may mean simply "concerning."
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