In the interim period between the exile of Yekhonya and the exile of Yehuda in the days of Tzidkiyahu, a complex situation arose in which there were two Jewish centers: one in Bavel, which included the elite of Jerusalem, and one in Jerusalem, where the poorest of the people of the land remained. There was a king in both centers: Yehoyakhin in Bavel and Tzidkiyahu in Jerusalem. This complex situation raised the question of the status of each center and the relationship between them.

Yirmiyahu hears the words of Chananya which negate his prophecy. He does not counter them, but merely warns Chananya against false prophecy. Moreover, Yirmiyahu who loves his people with all his heart, hopes and wants to believe that his own prophecy of calamity will be cancelled. Only after God speaks to him does he know that Chananya's speech was a false prophecy. A true prophet is aware of the possibility of change and of the dynamic quality of prophecy.

The decree is not fixed and absolute, but rather dynamic and conditioned on the situation.

Chapter 27 of the Book of Yirmiyahu contains a three part prophecy: The first to the kings of the nations who plan a rebellion against Babylon; another one to Tzidkiyahu king of Yehuda; and a third to the priest and the people. All three prophecies have a similar structure: They open with a positive command – to submit to the king of Babylonia – and then they warn against listening to the words of the false prophets who prophesy just the opposite.

After twenty-three years of prophecy during which Yirmiyahu and his fellow prophets warned about the impending calamity, the geopolitical situation becomes clarified: The "enemy from the north"(about whom Yirmiyahu had warned over the years of his prophecy) takes on concrete form in the figure of Nevuchadnetzar, king of Babylonia. Nevukhadnetzar functions as God's agent, and will come and punish the people for their refusal to hear God's words during those years.

If you want your journey to bring you to a whole new point of departure, you need to understand exactly where it began. If you want to know where you are, you have to know where you've come from. 

Sometimes the journey is defined by its purpose, and to fulfill it, you have to reach the destination. 

Clashes between true and false prophets take place in many places in the Bible. But for no other prophet does this type of confrontation play such a central role in his world as it does for Yirmiyahu.

Yirmiyahu highlights four distinctions between the true prophet and the false prophet:

Personality of the Prophet

Chapters 21-23 of the Book of Yirmiyahu contain a collection of prophecies that Yirmiyahu delivered to the last kings of Yehuda. The institutions of the Beit HaMikdash and the Davidic dynasty are perceived by the people as stable, absolute, and unassailable. Both rely on a Divine promise regarding their eternity, and the two promises are intertwined. However, the biological continuity of the descendants of David does not in itself entitle them to the kingdom, but only when coupled with its moral continuity. Only then can they truly sit on the throne of David.

God prohibits Yirmiyahu from partaking in normative life cycle events. He may not go to comfort mourners, attend wedding celebrations nor may he marry or procreate. As with Hoshea and Yehezkel, the command regarding his marital relations is a negative sign of the calamity that will strike the people. But in contrast to Hoshea and Yehezkel, Yirmiyahu is commanded to abstain from marriage from the outset.

In the analysis of the personal dimension that are found in the chapters of Yirmiyahu, one encounters the complicated relations between Yirmiyahu and his neighbors, the agony that he suffered as a result of his prophecies, and his resignation from and reappointment to prophecy.