Jeremiah 41:1-8 ▼

1 And it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, of the royal seed and of the officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. And there they ate bread together in Mizpah.

2 And Ishmael son of Nethaniah rose up, and ten of the men who were with him, and they struck Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan with the sword, and he killed him whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

3 And also all the Jews who were with him, with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war, Ishmael struck down.

4 And it came to pass on the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and not a man knew it,

5 that certain men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved and torn clothes and having cut themselves, and with offering and incense in their hands, to bring in to the house of YHWH.

6 And Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out to meet them from Mizpah, and weeping all along as he went. And it came to pass as he met them that he said to them: “Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.

7 And it came to pass at their coming into the midst of the city that Ishmael son of Nethaniah slaughtered them into the midst of a cistern—he and the men who were with him.

8 And ten men were found among them, and they said to Ishmael: “Do not put us to death, for we have treasures in the field—wheat, and barley, and oil, and honey.” And he held back, and he did not put them to death in the midst of their brothers.