1. in the seventh month] three months after the capture and two after the burning of the city.

and one of the chief officers of the king] We should probably, with LXX, omit this clause. It is absent also from 2 Kings 25:25.

they did eat bread together] i.e. Gedaliah received Ishmael as a guest. Hence the crime assumed a still more atrocious character.

Jeremiah 41:1-3. See introd. summary to the section. For Jeremiah 41:1 see 2 Kings 25:25.

2. Then arose Ishmael … and the ten men] Gedaliah’s retinue may not have been very large, and were probably quite unsuspecting. The murders seem to have been committed privately at the entertainment. Next day (Jeremiah 41:4) no one knew of it. Ishmael’s action was apparently useless as well as criminal. However, he may have been prepared to go any length to shew spite at the appointment of a ruler who was not, like himself (see Jeremiah 41:1), of the royal house, or his object possibly was to keep the land in a state of unrest, so as to help out Baalis’s ambitious wishes; also, if Baalis was going to annex Judah, Ishmael may have had an eye to the governorship.

3. The Jews on their return from the exile used to keep the third day of the seventh month (Tisri) as a fast in memory of Ishmael’s deed (Zechariah 7:5; Zechariah 8:19).

even the men of war] Gedaliah’s body-guard. But the words are absent, probably rightly, from LXX.

4. the second day] probably meaning the next day.

Ch. Jeremiah 41:4-18. Ishmael commits further massacres and carries off captives

The section may be summarized as follows.

(i) Jeremiah 41:4-10. The following day eighty pilgrims arrive. Ishmael goes weeping to meet them, and bids them come to Gedaliah. Having thus decoyed them into the city, he puts them all to death, except ten men who purchase their lives by disclosing the places where they possess hidden stores of food. Ishmael fills a pit with the slain, and carries away captive all the rest of the inhabitants of Mizpah. (ii) Jeremiah 41:11-18. Johanan and the captains who were with him go in pursuit of Ishmael, and release his captives. Ishmael himself with ten men escapes to the country of Ammon, while Johanan takes those whom he had rescued to the vicinity of Bethlehem, with a view of passing into Egypt as a refuge from the Chaldaeans.

5. from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria] These three towns were in Ephraim, and thus the pilgrims were descendants of members of the Northern kingdom. Cp. the contributions given by Manassites, etc., in Josiah’s time for the repairs of the Temple (2 Chronicles 34:9). Shechem, now Nâblus, is beautifully situated in a valley between the mountains Gerizim and Ebal. For Shiloh see on ch. Jeremiah 7:12.

having their beards shaven and their clothes rent] in sign of mourning for the destruction of the Temple.

having cut themselves] though prohibited by the Deuteronomic law. See on ch. Jeremiah 16:6.

oblations] For reading in mg. see on Jeremiah 17:26. Animal sacrifices could no longer be offered at the ruined Temple (Deuteronomy 12:13-18), but it was still open to them to bring other offerings to the site, and this they were about to do.

6. weeping all along] so as to feign equal concern with them for the fate of the Temple, and thus put them off their guard.

Come to Gedaliah] probably as governor, to whom therefore they should shew respect and offer greeting.

7. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them] See on Jeremiah 41:2.

8. we have stores hidden] In the East it is to this day a common custom to use “wells or cisterns for grain. In them the farmers store their crops of all kinds after the grain is threshed and winnowed. These cisterns are cool, perfectly dry, and tight. The top is hermetically sealed with plaster, and covered with a deep bed of earth.” See Thomson, The Land and the Book, pp. 509 f.

9. See 1 Kings 15:22; 2 Chronicles 16:6.

by the side of Gedaliah] With the slightest possible change in the consonants of the MT. we may accept an almost certain correction, and read (with LXX) “was a great cistern” (tank for the storage of water). Cp. the tragic story of the “well” at Cawnpore in the Indian mutiny.

10. the king’s daughters] not necessarily Zedekiah’s daughters, but female members of the royal house, not taken away as captive by Nebuchadnezzar.

11–18. See introd. summary to the section.

12. Gibeon] See on Jeremiah 28:1. The “great waters” apparently are to be identified with the “pool” of 2 Samuel 2:13. Gibeon was about a mile N. of Mizpah.

14. cast about] an archaism, meaning turned round. Cp. John Gower (c. 1325–1408), “Then cast I all the world about,” Confessio Amantis; and Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586), “Musidorus could doe no more but perswade the mariners to cast about againe,” Arcadia.

15. went to the children of Ammon] Cp. Jeremiah 40:14.

16. from Mizpah] But it was not from Mizpah, but from the neighbourhood of Gibeon that they had been recovered. Therefore with Hitzig (followed by later commentators) read all the remnant of the people whom Ishmael … had carried away captive from Mizpah. A similarity between the two Hebrew verbs has evidently been the cause of the confusion.

even the men of war] probably a gloss.

17. Geruth Chimham] For Chimham see 2 Samuel 19:37-40. Geruth occurs here only, and the mg. variant is a questionable rendering. Aquila and Josephus (Ant. X. ix. 5) read Gidroth (sheepfolds of) Chimham, while Gi. considers Gidroth to be probably a proper name.

to go to enter into Egypt] to prepare for the journey into Egypt, a journey which, according to the first words of the next verse, was undertaken from fear of the Chaldaeans. It seemed likely that the outbreak which had taken place in connexion with the overthrow and death of the governor appointed by the king of Babylon, might be revenged without much discrimination by that monarch.