Jeremiah 28:6

Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD'S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) Amen, the Lord do so.—It is impossible to mistake the tone of keen, incisive irony with which the words were spoken. The speaker could, without falsehood, echo the wish as far as it was a wish, but he knew that it was a wish for the impossible. The whole condition of things would have to be altered before there could be the slightest prospect of its fulfilment. It was not wise to pray for that which was obviously out of the lines of God’s normal methods of working in history, and against His purpose, as uttered by His prophets.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28:1-9 Hananiah spoke a false prophecy. Here is not a word of good counsel urging the Jews to repent and return to God. He promises temporal mercies, in God's name, but makes no mention of the spiritual mercies which God always promised with earthly blessings. This was not the first time Jeremiah had prayed for the people, though he prophesied against them. He appeals to the event, to prove Hananiah's falsehood. The prophet who spake only of peace and prosperity, without adding that they must not by wilful sin stop God's favours, will be proved a false prophet. Those who do not declare the alarming as well as the encouraging parts of God's word, and call men to repentance, and faith, and holiness, tread in the steps of the false prophets. The gospel of Christ encourages men to do works meet for repentance, but gives no encouragement to continue in sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jeremiah's own wishes concurred with Hananiah's prediction, but asserts that that prediction was at variance with the language of the older prophets.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. Amen—Jeremiah prays for the people, though constrained to prophesy against them (1Ki 1:36). The event was the appointed test between contradictory predictions (De 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 Ex 32:32; Ro 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].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The true prophet Jeremiah speaks to this false prophet with as much boldness as he had spoke to him with impudence, and in the same presence of the priests and of the people, but with a preface of great charity and modesty.

Amen, saith he; which particle is used in holy writ, either as a particle of assertion, as it is most ordinarily used both in this single form, and doubled by our Saviour in the gospel; or as a particle of wishing and praying, upon which account it is used in the Lord’s prayer, though there it signifieth more than here, viz. a faith or belief that God will grant the petitions, as well as a desire that he would grant them; here it signifieth no more than the latter, and is expounded by the next words: nor indeed doth it, or can it here, signify so much as an absolute hearty desire, for Jeremiah could not heartily pray for that which God had told him he would not do. Jeremiah therefore must be understood here, either to have spoken only as a man, testifying the kindness he had for his country; then the sense is, If it be the will of God, or may it be the will of God; I wish what thou hast said might come to pass: or else in sensu composito: q.d. The Lord give unto this people a heart to reform and amend their ways, that the words which thou hast spoken may come to pass.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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, Jeremiah 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.

Geneva Study Bible

Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the {e} LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD'S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

(e) That is, I would wish the same for God's honour and wealth of my people but he has appointed the contrary.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Jeremiah 28:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jeremiah's reply. - First Jeremiah admits that the fulfilment of this prediction would be desirable (Jeremiah 28:6), but then reminds his opponent that all the prophets of the Lord up till this time have prophesied of war and calamity (Jeremiah 28:7 and Jeremiah 28:8). So that if a prophet, in opposition to these witnesses of God, predicts nothing but peace and safety, then nothing short of the fulfilment of his prediction can make good his claim to be a true prophet (Jeremiah 28:9). - Jeremiah's answer is to this effect: Jeremiah 28:6. "Amen (i.e., yea), may Jahveh so do! may Jahveh perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of Jahveh's house and all the captives from Babylon into this place. Jeremiah 28:7. Only hear now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people. Jeremiah 28:8. The prophets that were before me and before thee from of old, they prophesied concerning many lands and great kingdoms, of war, and of trouble, and of pestilence. Jeremiah 28:9. The prophet that prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet cometh to pass, shall be known as the prophet that Jahveh hath truly sent. - As to אמן, yea, see on Jeremiah 11:5. The scope of this assent is straightway defined in "may Jahveh so do." But in order that the hearers may not misunderstand his assent, Jeremiah proceeds to show that hitherto only threatening predictions have carried with them the presumption of their being true prophecies, inasmuch as it is these alone that have been in harmony with the predictions of all previous prophets. ויּנּבאוּ (Jeremiah 28:8) is explained by the fact that "the prophets" with the accompany relative clause is made to precede absolute-wise. In the same absolute manner the clause "the prophet...peace" is disposed so that after the verb יוּדע the word הנּביא is repeated. For לרעה many MSS have לרעב; manifestly an adaptation to passages like Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 21:9; Jeremiah 24:10; Jeremiah 27:8, Jeremiah 27:13; Jeremiah 29:17., where sword, famine, and pestilence are mentioned together as three modes of visitation by God; whereas only the general word רעה seems in place here, when mentioned alongside of "war." For this very reason Hitz. rejects רעב as being the least difficult reading, while Ew. takes it under his protection on account of the parallel passages, not considering that the train of thought is different there. - The truth expressed in Jeremiah 28:9 is based on the Mosaic law concerning prophecy, Deuteronomy 18:21., where the fulfilment of the prediction is given as the test of true, God-inspired prophecy.