Why must the priests and all the people not listen to the prophets who say that vessels of the Lord’s house will shortly be brought back from Babylon?

Through Jeremiah, the Lord now speaks specifically to the priests and to all the people. He warns them not to listen to the prophets who say, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon. This in many ways gets to the heart of the issue between Jeremiah and the false prophets. These prophets were assuring the nation that the items taken from the temple during the invasion in 597 BC (2 Kings 24:13) and even in 605 BC (2 Chronicles 36:5–7) would be brought back from Babylon very soon. These items were used in worship in the temple and were therefore important to the priests who ministered in the temple and the people who worshipped there. But they were also significant to the false prophets because their removal by the Babylonians compromised the sanctity of the temple, which in turn compromised the safety of Jerusalem and the nation. The Babylonians took items from the temple not only because of their intrinsic value, but because for them it was a sign that the gods of Babylon had defeated the God of Israel.¹ Saying that these vessels would soon return both assured the people that the Lord would keep the nation safe, and that Babylon’s fall was imminent. It was a message of rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. Underlying their message was a deep conviction that Jerusalem and the nation was untouchable because of the presence of the temple.² This was in stark contrast to Jeremiah’s message that not only would the items not be returned soon, but the temple would actually be destroyed. Their message is a lie, says the Lord, and instead of listening to these prophets the people should rather serve the king of Babylon and live. The Lord asks the question, Why should this city become a desolation? The implication of this question is that holding onto the false hope that the temple would be restored and that Babylon would fall is in fact to reject the Lord’s word and would only bring further judgment on the nation.