And Jeremias the prophet said: Amen, the Lord do so: the Lord perform thy words, which thou hast prophesied: that the vessels may be brought again into the house of the Lord, and all the captives may return out of Babylon to this place.

“may...do Fasse in French. May...fulfill An expression of prayer. (These three lines up to “and he brought him to the prison” were not arranged by the author.) Amen! So may the Lord do, etc.Amen! The scholars of Aggadah say: So did he say to him: If only your words were fulfilled! I gain and you lose. I am a priest, and I eat the food hallowed in the name of Heaven if the Temple remains standing. But you are a Gibeonite, as it is written [here], “who was from Gibeon.” And you will be a slave to me, chopping wood and drawing water (Pesikta Rabbathi 27:4, Yalkut Shimoni ad loc.). But Moreh Zedek who did not explain, adopted the reason of our Sages (Sotah 41b) who learned from here that whoever flatters a wicked man will ultimately fall into his hands or into the hands of his son or into the hands of his son’s son, for Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah seized him and brought him to prison.”

“Here is set down Jeremiah's response, and first he shows his own affection, wishing that what he himself was saying might be fulfilled: amen, that is, let it be so. Micah 2: would that I were not a man having the spirit, and were rather speaking a lie. Nor does it stand in the way that he knew the Lord willed the contrary, because this wish is to be understood under a condition, namely, if God should will it; and because in this he conforms his own will to the divine, in that he wills what God wills to be. Second, lest he seem to consent to falsehood, he sets forth a sign of truth: nevertheless, hear. And this sign is taken from Deut. 18: that which that prophet has foretold in the name of the Lord, and it has not come to pass, this the Lord has not spoken. But he himself seems to argue from the contrary sense, and it seems that it does not hold, because it is a destruction of the antecedent; and for this reason the contrary is held in Deut. 13: if there should arise in your midst a prophet, or one who says he has seen a dream, and he has foretold a sign and a portent, and what he has spoken has come to pass, and he has said to you: let us go and follow strange gods whom you do not know, and let us serve them — you shall not hear the words of that prophet, or of that dreamer, et cetera. And it must be said that the argument is effective for showing his falsity; and this he himself intends.”

“Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen,.... Or, "so be it"; he wished it might be so as Hananiah had said, if it was the will of God; as a prophet he knew it could not be; as an Israelite, out of respect to his country, he wished it might be; or, however, he wished that they would repent of their sins, that the evil he had threatened them with might not come upon them, and the good that Hananiah had prophesied might be fulfilled: the Lord do so: the Lord perform the words which thou hast prophesied; such a hearty regard had he for his country, that, were it the Lord's pleasure to do this, he could be content to be accounted a false prophet, and Hananiah the true one; it was very desirable to him to have this prophecy confirmed and fulfilled by the Lord. The Jews (p) have a saying, that whoever deals hypocritically with his friend, at last falls into his hand, or the hands of his son, or son's son; and so they suppose Jeremiah acted hypocritically with Hananiah, and therefore fell into the hands of the son of his son's son, Jer 37:13; but he rather spoke ironically, as some think: to bring again the vessels of the Lord's house, and all that is carried away captive, to Babylon into this place; as a priest, this must be very desirable to Jeremiah, the Jews observe, since he would be a gainer by it; being a priest, he should eat of the holy things; when Hananiah, being a Gibeonite, would be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water to him. (p) T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 41. 2. &, 42. 1.”

“Amen--Jeremiah prays for the people, though constrained to prophesy against them (Kg1 1:36). The event was the appointed test between contradictory predictions (Deu 18:21-22). "Would that what you say were true!" I prefer the safety of my country even to my own estimation. The prophets had no pleasure in announcing God's judgment, but did so as a matter of stern duty, not thereby divesting themselves of their natural feelings of sorrow for their country's woe. Compare Exo 32:32; Rom 9:3, as instances of how God's servants, intent only on the glory of God and the salvation of the country, forgot self and uttered wishes in a state of feeling transported out of themselves. So Jeremiah wished not to diminish aught from the word of God, though as a Jew he uttered the wish for his people [CALVIN].”