Jeremiah 41:7

. Jeremiah 41:6 Ver. 6. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth to Mizpah to meet them,.... Hearing there was such a number of men upon the road to Jerusalem, in such a habit, and upon such a design, he thought it advisable to go out and meet them, and stop them, and decoy them into the city, and there destroy them; lest, if they should have got any hint of what had been done by him, they should spread it, and raise the country upon him, before he had executed his whole design: weeping all along as he went; pretending equal concern for the destruction of the land, city, and temple, as they had: and it came to pass, as he met them; when he came up to them, and some discourse had passed between them: he said unto them, come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; as if he was alive, and for whom he had a great respect, and whose character was well known to these men; and thought that this would be an inducement to come along with him: this he said either to try them, whether they had heard anything upon the road of the death of him; or as an argument to come into the city, suggesting the governor would gladly receive, and liberally entertain them. This looks as if their design was not to come to Mizpah, but to go on their way to Jerusalem, had they not been met with by him, and had he not thus solicited them. Jeremiah 41:7 Ver. 7. And it was [so], when they came into the midst of the city,....

41:1-10 Those who hate the worshippers of God, often put on the appearance of piety, that they may the easier hurt them. As death often meets men where they least expect it, we should continually search whether we are in such a state and frame of mind, as we would wish to be found in when called to appear before our Judge. Sometimes the ransom of a man's life is his riches. But those who think to bribe death, saying, Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field, will find themselves wretchedly deceived. This melancholy history warns us, never to be secure in this world. We never can be sure of peace on this side heaven.

And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city,.... Where Gedaliah's house was, to which he invited them; and as they went in, he shut up the court, as Josephus (h) says, and slew them, as it here follows: that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit; when he had slain them, the fourscore men he had enticed into the city, except ten of them, he cast their dead bodies into a pit near at hand: he, and the men that were with him; Ishmael and the ten princes, with what servants they brought with them; these were all concerned in the death of these men. (h) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 4.

(7) Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them. —The purpose of the new murder does not appear at first sight. The very presence of the devout mourners may have roused him to bitterness. Their recognition of Gedaliah may have seemed the act of traitors to their country. Possibly also the act may have been one of vindictive retaliation for the murder of his kinsmen ( Jeremiah 52:10 ), or have been perpetrated for the sake of plunder.

7. and cast them into … pit—He had not killed them in the pit (compare Jer 41:9); these words are therefore rightly supplied in English Version. the pit—the pit or cistern made by Asa to guard against a want of water when Baasha was about to besiege the city (Jer 41:9; 1Ki 15:22). The trench or fosse round the city [Grotius]. Ishmael's motive for the murder seems to have been a suspicion that they were coming to live under Gedaliah.

Ishmael went out from Mizpah to meet these men, always weeping as he went (הלך הלך וּבכה, cf. Ges. 131, ab; Ew. 280, b). If they came from Ephraim by way of Gibeon (el Jb), the road on to Jerusalem passed close by Mizpah. When Ishmael met them, he asked them to come to Gedaliah (to Mizpah). But when they had entered the city, "Ishmael slew them into the midst of the pit" (which was there), i.e., killed them and cast their corpses into the pit.

barbarous fashion used by the heathens, and forbidden the Jews, but yet practised by many of them. Jeremiah 41:6 He cometh out weeping, the better to deceive them into his trap, that they might believe he was as they equally affected with God’s dispensations, and inviteth them to the new governor for protection, as if he had been one of his courtiers and friends: by those arts he concealeth his bloody design against them. Jeremiah 41:7 When he had thus enticed them into Mizpah, he and his followers slay them, and throw their dead bodies into a pit, with the assistance of those bloody men that were with him. Jeremiah 41:8 He slew seventy of them, but ten of them pleading for their lives, urged that they had estates in the country, both of cor n, oil, and honey. His covetousness prevailed over his cruelty, he spared their lives to become master of what they had. Jeremiah 41:9 The word which we translate ## because of dyb signifieth in the hand of Gedaliah , which hath given critics a scope to vary in their notion of it, and to translate it, in the power of, by occasion of , &c. But the learned author of our English Annotations saith the sense of the place is plain enough; Jer_38:10, we have the same term twice, where we have translated it with