| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1But in midautumn of that year, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and had been one of the king’s high officials, went to Mizpah with ten men to meet Gedaliah. While they were eating together, |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Ishmael and his ten men suddenly jumped up, drew their swords, and killed Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Ishmael also killed all the Judeans and the Babylonian soldiers who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah. |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4The next day, before anyone had heard about Gedaliah’s murder, |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria to worship at the Temple of the LORD. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and frankincense. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6Ishmael left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he reached them, he said, “Oh, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!” |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7But as soon as they were all inside the town, Ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8The other ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by promising to bring him their stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey that they had hidden away. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he murdered was the large one dug by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah to protect himself against King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with corpses. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Then Ishmael made captives of the king’s daughters and the other people who had been left under Gedaliah’s care in Mizpah by Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard. Taking them with him, he started back toward the land of Ammon. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11But when Johanan son of Kareah and the other military leaders heard about Ishmael’s crimes, |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12they took all their men and set out to stop him. They caught up with him at the large pool near Gibeon. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13The people Ishmael had captured shouted for joy when they saw Johanan and the other military leaders. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14And all the captives from Mizpah escaped and began to help Johanan. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15Meanwhile, Ishmael and eight of his men escaped from Johanan into the land of Ammon. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16Then Johanan son of Kareah and the other military leaders took all the people they had rescued in Gibeon—the soldiers, women, children, and court officials whom Ishmael had captured after he killed Gedaliah. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17They took them all to the village of Geruth-kimham near Bethlehem, where they prepared to leave for Egypt. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18They were afraid of what the Babylonians would do when they heard that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonian king. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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