Jer. 41 Ishmael, under a color of friendship, killeth Gedaliah and others, both Jews and Chaldeans, Jer. 41:1–9. He purposeth to carry the residue captive to the Ammonites, but they are rescued from him by Johanan, who intendeth to flee into Egypt, Jer. 41:10–18.

In the seventh month; that is, three months after the city was taken, Jer. 39:2. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal; the same Ishmael that came to Gedaliah, Jer.

These ten men with their retinue fall upon Gedaliah, and barbarously murder him. Their quarrel against him was, that he was deputy governor to the king of Babylon; so desperately hardened were these Jews, that they would not yet see that God had given their country into the hand of the king of…

It appeareth from Jer. 41:10, that by all the Jews here must be understood only all those who were about the court of Gedaliah, for it is there said that he carried away many that were with him.

That is, no man who lived at any great distance from Mizpah, for Ishmael was concerned what in him lay to keep this slaughter private, for fear the news of it should have reached the ears of the king of Babylon, or the commanders of some of his forces, so as he should not have had time to make his…

Samaria was the name both of a city and a province; Shechem was a city within that province, within the limits of the tribe of Ephraim, Josh. 20:7. These places were now inhabited by a mixed people, partly Jews, partly such as the king of Assyria had upon his conquest of the ten tribes brought to…

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…

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.

He slew seventy of them, but ten of them pleading for their lives, urged that they had estates in the country, both of corn, oil, and honey. His covetousness prevailed over his cruelty, he spared their lives to become master of what they had.

The word which we translate because of ביד 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.

By this verse appeareth that all the Jews, Jer. 41:3, must be understood in a restrained sense, concerning all those about Gedaliah. For he carried many away as prisoners, as also Zedekiah’s daughters, who either had concealed themselves at the taking of the city, or were left behind by the…

These great waters are supposed to be a lake, or some great pool in Gibeon, the very same that is mentioned 2 Sam. 2:13, where Joab and the servants of David met, the one keeping on one side of the pool, the other on the other side.

To see a probability of their escape out of the hands of this bloody man, who had slain so many of their brethren.

When the people whom Ishmael had carried away prisoners saw Johanan coming with greater forces, they contrived and wheeled about and went to him, only Ishmael and eight men escaped and went to the land of Ammon.

When Johanan had (as was before expressed) recovered the Jews whom Ishmael had carried away as prisoners, he came and dwelt with them in the habitation of Chimham. Concerning this Chimham, all that we read in Scripture is 2 Sam. 19:37–38, 2 Sam.

Here was one slain whom the conqueror Nebuchadnezzar had made governor in the land of Judah, and it was but reasonable for them to think that Nebuchadnezzar would take the affront done to himself, he being constituted governor by him; and though Johanan had nothing to do in that murder, yet he did…