Ver. 11. And Hananiah spoke in the presence.of a. ll
the people, &c.] Explaining tothem his meaning, m
taking the yoke, and breaking it: saying, tkus saith
the Lord; wickedly making use of the Lord's name, to
give countenance to his words and actions: even so will
I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
from the neck of all nations, within the space of two full
years; the time he had fixed for the bringing back of
the vessels of the sanctuary, ver. 3: and the Prophet
Jeremiah went his way; shewing thereby his dissent
from him, and his dislike and detestation of his lies
and blasphemies; patiently bearing his affronts and
insolence; and prudently withdrawing to prevent riots
and tumults; r. eturning no answer till he had re-
ceived one from the Lord himself, which he quickly
had.
Ver. 1 2. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah
the prophet, &c.] When in his own house or apart-
ment, to which he retired; and this came to him
either in a vision or dream, or by some articulate
voice, or by an impulse upon his spirit, directing him
what to say to the false prophet: after that Hananiah
the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the
Prophet Jeremiah: how long afterwards is not known,
perhaps the same day; or, however, it is certain it was
in the same year, and less than two months after, ver.
17. and very probably in a few hours after: saying; as
follows:
Ver. 13. Go and tell Hananiah, saying, thus saith
the Lord, &c.] Whose name he had abused; whose
prophet he had ill-treated; and whose prophecies he
had contradicted, and the symbols of them had con-
tumeliously used: thou hast broken the yokes of wood:
or, bonds, or the thongs {q}; with which the yokes of
wood were bound and fastened, as Kimchi interprets
it: but thou shall make for them yokes of iron; not
Hananiah, but Jeremiah; who should prophesy of a
more severe bondage the nations should be brought
into by Nebuchadnezzar, in direct contradiction to
Hananiah's prophecy; instead of wooden yokes, they
should have iron ones; which should lie heavier, and
bear harder upon them, and which could not be broken
nor taken off.
Ver. 14. For thus $aith the Lord of hosts, the God oJ
Israel, &c.3 Under which titles he is often spoken of;
and which he uses, when he delivered any thing to his
prophets to declare in his name to others: I haveput a
yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations: men-
tioned in ch. xxvii. 3: that they may serve Nebuchad-
nezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him; di-
rectly contrary to what Hananiah had prophesied, ver.
11. that his yoke should be broke off from them; but
instead of that, it should become heavier unto them,
and they should be obliged to serve him, whether they
would or no; and refusing to pay tribute to him, should
be carried captive by him, as had been foretold: and I
have given him the beasts of the field also; as he had said
he would, ch. xxvii. 6. and which is repeated, to shew
that the whole would be punctually fulfilled; that not
only those nations, the men, the inhabitants of them,
would be delivered to him; but even the very cattle,
and all that belonged to them..
Ver. 15. Then said Jeremiah the prophet unto .Hanniah
the prophet, &c.] The false prophet, as he is again
called bythe Targum, and in the Syriac version; where
he went to him, and met with him, whether in the
temple' or elsewhere, is not mentioned; very probably
in some public place, that there might be witnesses
of what was said; for it was for the conviction of
others, a, well as for his own confusion, the following
things are observed: hear now, Hananiah, the Lord hath
not sent thee; th9ugh he spoke in his name, and pre-
tended a mission from him, when he had none, which
was abominable wickedness: but thou makest this peo-
ple to trust in a lie: that the Lord would break off the
yoke of the king of Babylon, and free the nations from
servitude to him, particularly Judea; and that the
king, and his princes, and people, and the vessels of
the temple, carried away with him, would be returned
within two years; this the people depended on as
coming from the Lord, when he was not sent by him,
Vet. 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord, &c.] Because
of this heinous offence, in lying in the name of the Lord,
and deceiving the people: behold, I will cast thee from off
the face of the earth; with the utmost indignation and
abhorrence, as not worthy to. live upon it: it signifies
that he should die, and that not a natural, but violent
death, by the immediate hand of God, by some judgment
upon him; and so be by force taken off the earth, and
buried in it, and be no more seen on it: this year thou.
shalt die; within .the present year, reckoning from this
time; so that, had he died any time within twelvemonths
from hence, it would have been sufficient to have veri-
fied the prophecy: because thou hast taught rebellion
against the Lord; to despise his word by his prophet;
to contradict his will; to refuse subjection to the king
of Babylon; to neglect his instructions, directions,. and
exhortations; and to believe a lie.
Ver. 17. So Hananiah the prophet died the same
year, &c.] That he had delivered out his prophecy;
in the same year in which Jeremiah said he should die;
which proved him to be a false prophet, and Jeremiah
to be a true one: in the seventh month: it was two
months after he had prophesied; for it was. in the fifth
month that he prophesied, and in the seventh he died;
not after seven months, as Theodoret remarks, but in
two months; so he that prophesied, that within two
years what he foretold would come to. pass, in two
months time dies himself, according to the word
of the Lord, and his prophecies die with him. The
Jewish writers move a difficulty here, how he should
be said to die the same year, when the seventh month
was the beginning of another year; for the civil year
of the Jews began from the seventh month, or the
month Tisri; as their ecclesiastical year from the month
Nisan or Abib. To solve this they observe a tradition,
that he died the last day of the sixth month, or the ev, e
of the new year; and ordered his sons and his servants, 
before his death., to hide it, and not bring him out to
be buried till after the year was begun, to make Jere-.
miah a liar: to which agrees the Targum, both of the
clause in the preceding verse, and this; the former of
which it paraphrases thus, "this year shall thou die;
"and in the other year (or the year following) thou

{q} \^Ue tjwm\^ lora lignea, Junius & Tremellius.