Some time after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: Go tell Hananiah this:   Thus says the LORD: By breaking a wooden yoke, you forge an iron yoke! (Jer 28:12-13)

Dueling prophets in the house of the Lord . . . folks must have been a little bit confused. But seeing Jeremiah wearing a wooden yoke around his neck must have must have provoked howls of laughter, especially when the prophet Hananiah removed it from Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. But a wooden yoke will soon be replaced by an iron yoke, says the Lord, and no one is laughing anymore.