(Verse 5 onwards) And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah: Listen, Hananiah: The Lord did not send you, and yet you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will send (or cast) you away from the face of the earth, you will die this year. And what follows: Because you have spoken against the Lord. And Hananiah the prophet died in that year, in the seventh month, which is not mentioned in the Septuagint. For as much as they have set him forth above: He died in the seventh month. And this Ananias is not spoken of in the Septuagint as a prophet, though the Holy Scripture of the Hebrews calls him a prophet, even though Jeremiah accuses him, saying: Hear, Ananias, the Lord has not sent you, yet thou have prophesied. For how could he call him a prophet, whom he denied to be sent by the Lord? But the truth and order of the history is preserved, as we have said, not according to what it was, but according to what it was thought to be at that time. You deceived, he says, the people with a lie, so that they would not submit to the judgments of God. Therefore, you know that you will die this year. When we die, we are released from the prisons of the body, according to that testimony, which heretics interpret wrongly: Bring my soul out of prison (Ps. 141:8): so how is death now imposed as a punishment on false prophets? But in this place it should be noted that Jeremiah, after suffering injury from a false prophet, and before receiving a direct message from the Lord, remains silent; later, however, sent by the Lord, he boldly accuses the liar and announces his impending death. And that he who usually translates the seventh month is said to rest under this number, perhaps they falsely claim that he died in the seventh month so that he may be freed from the evils of the body, according to what they quote from the writing. Death is rest for a man. But we know that the bodies of believers are temples of God, if indeed the Holy Spirit dwells in them (Sirach 22:11).
When Jeremiah admonishes him, saying, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord did not send you,” he omits the title “prophet,” for how could he call him a prophet who refused to be sent by the Lord? But the truth and order of history is preserved, as we said above, not according to what was but according to what was thought to be at the time. He says, in effect, “You have deceived the people with a falsehood, to prevent them from agreeing with the judgment of God. Hence, you know that this will be the year you die.” But if, when we die, we are liberated from the prison of the body, according to that testimony that has been badly misinterpreted by heretics, “Free my soul from this prison,” how is the death of a pseudo-prophet now imposed as a punishment? It also must be observed, however, that Jeremiah suffered injury from the false prophet and remained silent, the word of the Lord not yet having come to him. Afterwards, however, when sent by the Lord, he boldly convicted him of lying and announced his imminent death. And because he died in the seventh month, which was always customarily understood to represent “rest,” due to the significance of the number, perhaps they were deceived that he died in the seventh month, so that he would be liberated from the evils of the body according to that passage they proffer from Scripture: “Death gives rest to a person.” But we know that the bodies of believers are temples of God, if the Holy Spirit still dwells within them.
[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 28:5-17