And it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah.
Two months after Jerusalem fell, ten men killed the governor Babylon had left in charge of the ruined land. The murderer was Ishmael, a man of Judah's own royal family, and the commentators ask how the king's line sank that far.
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The verse records Ishmael's family line. One writer says that detail is there on purpose.
The Holy Spirit adds a description to Ishmael's name and family, and it means something: "of the royal family." Normally, and by right, this should have been a guarantee of help to a governor, a support and shelter to the people. But they forgot God and slighted His judgments as well as His will. Human corruption takes its course where it fits least of all. The ruin of Israel was complete when the royal line sank into the lowest form of cunning, treachery, and murder — and this against the best of their own people.
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Gedaliah did not die unwarned. Johanan told him exactly what was coming, and the plot traced back to a foreign king who wanted no peace in Judah.
But sin ruins everything everywhere. Ambition and intrigue, treachery and violence can work in crushed Judea just as well as in victorious Babylon, and they hurt more there. Evil men find nothing harder to bear than good men, and sometimes how much they owe a good man only makes their plan worse... A wicked Jew lends himself to the plans of a pagan neighbour, who resents any order or easing of sorrow in the land.
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Ishmael ate at the governor's table before he killed him. And the killing did not stop with Gedaliah.
This murder took place right after Ishmael had eaten with Gedaliah, pretending to be his friend. In fact, on the second day after this happened, 80 men came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria wanting to meet with Gedaliah.
after Ishmael met them, weeping, and guided them into the city, where Ishmael and his men killed them, except for ten men who bribed Ishmael to let them live.
One writer weighs what drove Ishmael, and finds the obvious motives too small.
It was not only jealousy of the good man who fell without suspicion at his own table, where he had welcomed these evil messengers as guests. It was not only plain rebellion against the conquering king of Babylon, which then broke out against the local governor and the foreign soldiers at Mizpah. This royal criminal had tasted blood and would carry on his desperate course, not caring whom he killed or why.
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There is another way to read the death of good men at the hands of a bad one.
Who can doubt that it pleased God to take Gedaliah away from the evil to come, and with him those who grieved over the ruins of Israel? It was mercy to them. It was also a further chastening on the guilty people, high or low, that those who acted and felt most rightly should be swept away — and swept away by their own countrymen's hands.
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The murder terrified the survivors, and the next verse records their flight to Egypt. They asked Jeremiah what to do — but the asking was not honest.
Johanan and others with him asked Jeremiah to enquire of the Lord what they ought to do now that Gedaliah was gone. This should not have been difficult, for they had accepted the oath of Gedaliah to remain in the land. Now they told Jeremiah that whatever the Lord said, they would obey. However, Jeremiah told them the Lord had plainly said they would be blessed if they stayed in the land under the rule of Babylon. He also told them they had been hypocritical in saying they would obey the Lord. They had already decided to go to Egypt, and were only hoping God would confirm it.
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Staying would have been their safety: "blessing always accompanies the accepting of God's judgment when the soul humbly submits."
Centuries later, this murder was still being marked on the calendar — and God questioned the marking.
In His answer through Zechariah, God joined to the fast they asked about another one in the seventh month. It seems to have remembered the murder of Gedaliah and others, and the flight into Egypt of the remnant left in the land... The people kept these tragedies with fasting and tears through the seventy years of captivity. As far as we can tell, God gave no direct answer to the question they raised. Instead He raised another question with them.
after Did they have the Lord before their minds in their observances, or only themselves?
- Position. Ishmael's royal descent should have made him a shelter for the people; instead it made his treachery the proof that "the ruin of Israel was complete."
- Plot. The scheme came from outside. A pagan neighbour resented any order or relief in the land, and a wicked Jew lent himself to the plan.
- Table. Ishmael killed the governor right after eating at his table, then killed eighty men who had come in peace.
- Mercy. God took the mourners "from the evil to come" — kindness to them, and a further chastening for the guilty left behind.
- Flight. The survivors asked God what to do with their minds already made up. The blessing lay in staying in the land; they went to Egypt instead.
And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
Jerusalem had fallen, and Babylon left a few people in the land under a governor named Gedaliah. Then Gedaliah was murdered, and the last of Judah fled to Egypt — the one place the prophet had told them not to go.
The book of Jeremiah fills in the detail. As one writer shows, the people had already made up their minds. Only then did they ask God what to do.
Verse 26 (of 2 Kings 25) tells how all those people who had come to Gedaliah decided to go to Egypt, because they feared the Chaldeans, or Babylonians. Johanan and others with him asked Jeremiah to ask the Lord what they ought to do now that Gedaliah was gone (Jer. 42:1-3)... However, Jeremiah told them the Lord clearly declared that they would be blessed if they stayed in the land under Babylon's rule. He also told them they had been hypocritical in saying they would obey the Lord. They had already decided to go to Egypt, and were only hoping that God would confirm this.
The verse gives their motive: they were afraid of the Babylonians. One commentator sets that fear beside open rebellion. He finds the two are not far apart.
Fear is proof of unbelief just as surely as bold or treacherous rebellion is, even if it is less obvious. The prophet had warned them to submit to the king of Babylon, not to flee into Egypt... How blessed for the believer! He has every right to trample on fears, and to trust the word of the Lord without anxiety.
Babylon had already carried another group of Jews away. Their story ran the opposite way.
This short history holds a special interest. The story of this remnant stands in complete contrast to the story of the remnant at Babylon. These go down into Egypt, against the word of the Lord, and sword and famine and disease will consume them. Those at Babylon have peace and prosperity and plenty promised to them for the time being... God at the beginning redeemed the people out of Egypt, but Babylon became the place of their captivity when they had turned away from the Lord. To return to Egypt therefore was fatal, but from Babylon there was deliverance.
Egypt was not their only option. If they had submitted to Babylon, the land would have stayed theirs. Instead, the danger they ran from caught up with them.
Still, if at this last hour this remnant had submitted to Nebuchadnezzar's yoke, peace would have reigned in the land. The few who remained would have kept it. But some revolt, and the others fear the consequences of their folly. There is no thought of trusting in Jehovah. They consult Jeremiah, but refuse to obey the word of the Lord from his mouth. They take refuge in Egypt to escape Nebuchadnezzar. But they only fall under the sword that would have spared them in Judea, if they had stayed there under the king.
They went to Egypt for safety. But their old sin went with them.
These wretched people begin again to serve other gods in the land of Egypt to which they had fled. God describes their condition in these words: "They have not humbled themselves even to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers" (Jer. 44:10). So God declares that of all those who had gone down to Egypt, none of the remnant should "escape or survive or return to the land of Judah" (Jer. 44:14). Only a very small company would escape (v. 28).
Egypt was the place God had rescued Israel from at the very start. That history is what made leaning on Egypt an insult. The same lesson reaches us today.
This reliance upon Egypt was specially offensive to God, since from that very people He had delivered them by His judgments at the start of their national history. It is just as offensive to God when a Christian goes back to the world-system. God has delivered him from that system and from the judgment coming on it. Yet he leans on its power or its wisdom, instead of finding his resource in God when emergencies arise.
- Fear — They left because they dreaded Babylon's revenge. Fear proves unbelief as surely as open rebellion does.
- Pretence — They had already chosen Egypt before they asked Jeremiah for God's answer. They only wanted it confirmed.
- Refuge — Egypt looked like shelter. The sword they ran from struck them there, and staying would have spared them.
- Relapse — In their chosen refuge they took up idol worship again, unhumbled to the end.
- No return — Babylon's captives had a way home. Almost none in Egypt would come back. Accept God's discipline and there is a road back; run from it and there is none.