Jeremiah 41:14

41:11-18 The success of villany must be short, and none can prosper who harden their hearts against God. And those justly lose comfort in real fears, who excuse themselves in sin by pretended fears. The removal of a prudent and peaceable ruler, and the succession of another who is rash and ambitious, affects the welfare of many. Only those are happy and steady who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

So all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah cast about,.... Or turned about, and wheeled off from Ishmael, and deserted him at once; not at all regarding his authority, nor fearing his menaces or his power; being in sight of the captains and their forces, they were determined to join, and put themselves under their protection, knowing them to be their friends, and that they, came to deliver them: and returned, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah; turned their backs on Ishmael, and marched directly to Johanan, and the captains of the forces under them.

When those who had been carried off by Ishmael saw these captains, they were glad, since they had followed their captor merely because they were forced to do so. They all turned, and went over to Johanan; but Ishmael escaped from Johanan, with eight men, - having thus lost two in the fight with Johanan, - and went to the Ammonites.

in the fields —not in the city, but scattered in the country (Jeremiah 40:7). 14. Baalis —named from the idol Baal, as was often the case in heathen names. Ammonites —So it was to them that Ishmael went after murdering Gedaliah (Jeremiah 41:10). slay —literally, "strike thee in the soul," that is, a deadly stroke. Ishmael —Being of the royal seed of David (Jeremiah 41:1), he envied Gedaliah the presidency to which he thought himself entitled; therefore he leagued himself with the ancient heathen enemy of Judah. believed … not —generous, but unwise unsuspiciousness (Ecclesiastes 9:16). 16. thou speakest falsely —a mystery of providence that God should permit the righteous, in spite of warning, thus to rush into the trap laid for them! Isaiah 57:1 suggests a solution. ## CHAPTER 41 Jeremiah 41:1-18. I SHMAEL M URDERS G EDALIAH AND O THERS , T HEN F LEES TO THE A MMONITES. J OHANAN P URSUES H IM , R ECOVERS THE C APTIVES , AND P URPOSES TO F LEE TO E GYPT FOR F EAR OF THE C HALDEANS. 1. seventh month —the second month after the burning of the city (Jeremiah 52:12, 13). and the princes —not the nominative. And the princes came, for the "princes" are not mentioned either in Jeremiah 41:2 or in 2 Kings 25:25: but, "Ishmael being of the seed royal and of the princes of the ## king" [M AURER ]. But the ten men were the "princes of the king"; thus M AURER ' S objection has no weight: so English Version.

Instead of "Johanan the son of Kareah," we have in Jeremiah 40:8 "Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah;" but it is uncertain whether ויונתן has crept into the text of Jeremiah from the previous יהוחנן merely through a mistake, and this mistake has brought with it the alteration of בּן into בּני (Ewald), or whether ויונתן has dropped out of our text through an oversight, and this omission has occasioned the alteration of בני into בן (Thenius, Graf, etc.). The former supposition is favoured by the circumstance that in Jeremiah 40:13; Jeremiah 41:11, Jeremiah 41:16, Johanan the son of Kareah alone is mentioned. In Jeremiah 40:8 עופי וּבני (Chethb עיפי) stands before הנּטפתי, according to which it was not Seraiah who sprang from Netophah, but Ophai whose sons were military commanders. He was called Netophathite because he sprang from Netopha in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem (Nehemiah 7:26; Ezra 2:22), the identity of which with Beit Nettif is by no means probable (see at 2 Samuel 23:28). The name יאזביהוּ is written יזניהוּ in Jeremiah; he was the son of the Maachathite, i.e., his father sprang from the Syrian district of Maacah in the neighbourhood of the Hermon (see at Deuteronomy 3:14).