And it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, and [one] of the king's chief men, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam unto Mizpah, and there they ate bread together, in Mizpah.
A man of royal blood shares a meal with the governor of Judah, then kills him at his own table. The details matter: the seventh month, the shared bread, the ten men, Ishmael's royal descent. Commentators read them as a picture of a nation collapsing from the inside.
These chapters follow the Jews left in the land after Babylon carried the rest away:
In Jeremiah 40 to 44 we have the anarchy and moral disorder among the Jews left behind in the land, or near it. Babylon had carried most of their fellow countrymen away captive. Jeremiah becomes their helper, bringing them the word of the Lord. But he finds among them the greatest unbelief… now even the little remnant, the poor left in the land among whom Jeremiah remained, were full of jealousy and full of their own plans. They were full of treason, full of deceit and violence. God was not really in their thoughts.
Scripture names Ishmael's royal descent, and that detail carries weight:
The Holy Spirit adds a description to Ishmael's name and family that is not meaningless: "of the royal line." Normally, and rightly, that would have guaranteed help to a governor, and support and shelter for the people. But God was forgotten, His judgments as well as His will ignored, and human corruption runs its course where it was least fitting. The ruin of Israel was complete when the royal line sank to the lowest form of cunning, treachery and murder. And the victims were the best of their own people.
One sin lay behind the murder:
Jealousy, however, will spoil everything. A certain man of royal blood named Ishmael evidently thought that he should have been appointed governor. And so he kills Gedaliah along with all the Jews with him and the Chaldean soldiers that had been left there by the king of Babylon.
The shared bread makes the crime worse, and it did not stop with Gedaliah:
This was not only jealousy of the good man who fell unsuspectingly at his own table, where he had generously welcomed these agents of wickedness… This royal outlaw had tasted blood and would carry on his reckless course, not caring whom he killed or why.
Submitting to Babylon was not weakness:
Gedaliah was determined to remain in the land and to be subject to the king of Babylon. He took an oath to this effect before these men, and required them to serve Nebuchadnezzar too. This was the wise thing to do, for God had brought them down, and rebellion would have been rebellion against God.
The best men died. That looks like pure loss:
Who can doubt that God was pleased to take away Gedaliah, and those who grieved over the desolations of Israel, from the evil that was coming? It was mercy to themselves. It was also a further chastening on the guilty people, high and low: their own countrymen swept away the very men who acted and felt most rightly.
The remnant had the right land and God's prophet living with them. It changed nothing:
Chapters 40-41 expose a mistaken idea. Being a remnant in the land — in the right place — does not by itself give anyone a superior standing. To be in the right place without being right with the right Person will only expose us to bad behaviour and false piety, as we see here. Even with the prophet of God among them, whose word they pretended to value, they acted deceitfully.
Israel kept mourning this murder long after the event:
The Lord's answer through Zechariah linked a second fast with the one they had asked about, kept in the seventh month. It seems to have been in memory of the murder of Gedaliah and others, and of the flight of the remnant left in the land into Egypt… The people marked these tragedies with fasting and tears through the seventy years of captivity.
- Place. The remnant was in the right land, with God's prophet among them. They were still full of jealousy, treason, deceit and violence. God was not in their thoughts.
- Person. The right place without the right Person leads to bad behaviour and false piety. Standing somewhere good guarantees nothing.
- Pedigree. "Of the royal line" should have meant protection for a governor. Here it sank to cunning and murder. That is how complete the ruin was.
- Position. Gedaliah's oath to serve Babylon was wisdom, because God had brought them down. Striking him down was rebellion against God, not just against a king.
- Providence. The best men fell. For them it was mercy, taken away from the evil that was coming. For a guilty people it was chastening, since their own countrymen did the killing. The nation fasted over that day for seventy years.
And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah arose, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.
Jerusalem has fallen, and Babylon has left a governor, Gedaliah, over the poor who remain in the land. This verse records how that last fragile arrangement ended: at a shared meal, by the hand of a guest.
Verse 1 puts Ishmael and his ten men at Gedaliah's table before verse 2 puts a sword in their hands. One commentator keeps that meal in view when he weighs the crime.
This was not only jealousy against the good man who fell unsuspecting at his own table, where he had welcomed these messengers of evil as guests. Nor was it simply rebellion against the conquering king of Babylon, which broke out at Mizpah against the native governor and the foreign soldiers. The royal criminal had tasted blood. He would carry on his desperate course, not caring whom he killed or why.
Jeremiah notes that Ishmael came from the royal line. One writer shows why that phrase matters.
It is not a meaningless description when the Holy Spirit adds to Ishmael's name and ancestry the words "of the royal family." Normally this would rightly have been a guarantee of support to a governor, and a strength and shelter to the people. But God was forgotten, His judgments as well as His will ignored, and human corruption runs its course where it was least fitting. Truly the ruin of Israel was complete when the royal line sank into the lowest form of cunning, treachery, and murder.
Commentators point to two forces working at once. One names the personal grievance.
Jealousy will spoil everything. A certain man of royal blood named Ishmael evidently thought that he should have been appointed governor. And so he kills Gedaliah along with all the Jews with him and the Chaldean men of war left there by the king of Babylon.
Another points past Ishmael to the foreign king who sent him.
This man, however, came with evil purposes, sent by Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, and driven, no doubt, by his own ambition.
Gedaliah did not die for lack of warning.
God did not fail to give timely and adequate warning of the danger hanging over Gedaliah. And he was certainly careless and unwise to have brushed it aside. But a good man does not like to hear evil. His own heart holds nothing but kindness toward others. So he is slow to believe the malice of those he had only tried to help. Still, in this case it was not without fault. He held a public and responsible position. His life mattered a great deal, both for helping the poor and as a safeguard against the suspicion or anger of the Chaldeans.
The killing did not end with Gedaliah. The survivors ran for Egypt, and one writer names the root of that flight.
Fear is evidence of unbelief just as surely as bold or treacherous rebellion, even if it is not as obvious. The prophet had warned them to submit to the king of Babylon, not to run to Egypt. What came of this disobedience, flowing out of distrust, we have yet to learn. What a blessing it is for the believer! He is free to trample on his fears and to trust the word of the Lord without anxiety.
The deeper problem was not where they were living.
Chapters 40-41 expose for us the mistaken idea that a remnant in the land — in the right place — automatically has some superior standing. To be in the right place, without being right with the right Person, will only leave us open to bad behaviour and hollow hypocrisy, as this account shows.
The murder also left its mark on Israel's calendar.
The Lord adds a fast in the seventh month, which was another fast in memory of the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael (Jer. 41:1-2). The Lord raises a serious question. Were these fasts out of concern for His glory, or did Israel have selfish motives?
Yet that mourning is not the last word on the date.
"The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace." All the feasts named appear to belong to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and to what followed.
- Table — the sword came from guests he had just fed. The welcome makes the treachery worse, not lighter.
- Warning — Gedaliah heard the plot named and would not believe it. Kindness that refuses to hear evil is still a fault in a man with public responsibility.
- Bloodline — "of the royal family" is no idle phrase. The line that should have sheltered the people produced their killer.
- Flight — fear scattered the survivors toward Egypt, and that kind of fear is unbelief as truly as open rebellion.
- Feast — the day became a fast in the seventh month, yet God's promise is that such days of mourning turn into joy and gladness.