Pensamiento judío sobre Isaías 5:19

In the case of Jeremiah and Chananyah, the situation was that the former had warned that unless the people repented they would fall victim to Nebuchadnezzar; Chananyah, on the other hand, without denigrating the value of repentance, promised that the grandeur of Jerusalem would be restored. This put Jeremiah in an excellent position. Should his own prophecy not be fulfilled, he could argue that the people's repentance had borne fruit, and that G'ds decree to destroy Jerusalem had been cancelled. However, Chananyah,- in the event that he would be proved wrong,- could hardly argue that as a reward for the people's repentance G'd had brought on destruction. In this sense the competition between the two men was unique in history. (see chapter twenty eight) Chananyah died within two months, in order to give the people a chance to profit by his death and do penitence. In chapter 28,8-9, Jeremiah makes it clear that in the past the authentic nature of a prophet's message was proven when the good he had predicted had materialised. He thus had ample precedent for what he proclaimed now as the even habochen, the yardstick.