41
📚Now it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and of the officials of the king, came with ten men to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, and there in Mizpah they ate bread together. 2 📚Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and with the sword struck and killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. 3 📚Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with him at Mizpah, that is, with Gedaliah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the soldiers. Wicked Ishmael
4 📚And it so happened on the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, without anyone knowing it, 5 📚that some eighty men from Shechem, from Shiloh and from Samaria, with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, having made cuts on themselves, came with offerings and incense in their hands, to bring them to the house of the LORD. 6 📚And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went along; and it came about when he met them that he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam”. 7 📚And it happened when they came into the middle of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the men who were with him, killed them and threw them down into the pit. 8 📚But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have hidden stores of wheat and barley and oil and honey in a field”. So he refrained and did not kill them with their brethren. 9 📚Now the cistern where Ishmael had thrown all the dead bodies of the men he had killed because of Gedaliah, was the one which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel; and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who had been killed.
10 📚Then Ishmael took away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and left to go over to the Ammonites.
11 📚But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the officers of the army who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, 12 📚they took all the men and went out to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great pool in Gibeon. 13 Now it happened when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the officers of the army who were with him, that they were glad. 14 So all the people whom Ishmael had taken away captive from Mizpah turned around, came back and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. 15 📚But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
41:1-15 In chapter 24 God revealed to Jeremiah that those left behind by the Babylonians would be like bad figs (Jer 24:8). For the most part they were without spiritual life or the fear of God. These verses record what we might expect from such people.⚜
The Jews take Jeremiah and go to Egypt
16 📚Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the officers of the army who were with him took all the rest of the people from Mizpah whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the mighty warriors and the women and the children and the eunuchs whom he had brought back from Gibeon, 17 📚and they departed and stayed at the dwelling place of Kimham, which is near Bethlehem, going on the way to Egypt, 18 📚because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.
41:16-18 Running away from trouble is the only answer some people have. God did not tell them to go to Egypt. But in any case, as the next chapter reveals, they did not have a mind to do what God said.⚜