And it came to pass the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it,
One day had passed since Gedaliah was killed at Mizpah, and no one outside the murderer's circle knew it. That secret gave the killer cover for his next crime, and it raises a question: where was God while the last leaders of His people turned to treachery?
What happened at Mizpah was not one man's private crime. It came out of a general collapse of order.
In Jeremiah 40 to Jeremiah 44, we see the anarchy and moral disorder among the Jews who stayed in the land, or near it, after Babylon had carried most of their fellow countrymen away captive. Jeremiah becomes their helper and brings them the word of the Lord, but he finds among them the greatest unbelief… Even the little remnant, the poor left in the land, among whom Jeremiah stayed, were full of jealousy, full of their own plans. They were full of treason, full of deceit and violence. God was not really in their thoughts.
Scripture tells us Ishmael came from the royal line. That one detail shows how far the nation had fallen.
The Holy Spirit does not add "of the royal family" to Ishmael's name and kin for nothing. Normally and rightly this would have been a guarantee of help to a governor, and a support and shelter to the people. But they forgot God, and slighted His judgments and His will. Human corruption takes its course where it is least fitting. The ruin of Israel was complete. Its royal line had sunk into the lowest kind of cunning, treachery, and murder — and against the best of their own people.
The hidden murder gave Ishmael a free hand. No one raised an alarm, so he could keep killing — and by now his motive was more than politics.
It was not only jealousy of the good man who fell at his own table, suspecting nothing, after welcoming these agents of evil as guests. It was not simple rebellion either against the conquering king of Babylon, which then broke out against the native governor and the foreign soldiers at Mizpah. This royal killer had tasted blood. He would carry on his reckless course, not caring whom he killed or why.
The men who arrived on that second day were on their way to worship at the ruined temple site. Their devotion was mixed, but real, and it cost them their lives.
It even seems that people honoured the worship of the Lord again, at a time when the temple lay in complete ruin. At least there was a "house of the Lord" to which those who mourned over Israel's condition could go up… On the second day he killed men who had come to seek the Lord. Perhaps they were ignorant and not free from pagan practices, but their hearts were broken.
The horror had another side. God was taking the godly out of reach of worse evil, and their loss fell on the nation as punishment.
Who can doubt that God chose to take Gedaliah away from the evil to come, along with those who grieved over the ruins of Israel? It was mercy to them. It was also a further chastening on the guilty people, high and low, that the ones who acted and felt best of all should be swept away — and by their own brothers' hands.
For generations Israel kept a fast in the seventh month because of this murder. The reason they kept it is worth asking about.
The fast of the seventh month was kept on the anniversary of the murder of Gedaliah at Mizpah (Jeremiah 41). But why did they keep these fast days?… It was not for the honour and glory of God. Their own selfish interests were at the bottom of it. Indeed God had never asked them to fast.
These survivors were in the right place — the land itself. It did them no good.
Chapters 40-41 show up a mistaken idea. Being a remnant in the land — in the right place — does not by itself give anyone superior qualifications. To be in the right place without being right with the right Person is no help. It only leaves us open to bad behaviour and to ungodly hypocrisy, as we see here. Even with the prophet of God among them, whose word they pretended to value, they acted deceitfully.
- Secret — One hidden day was all the cover Ishmael needed. No one knew, so the killing went on.
- Seed — The murderer came from the royal line, the family that should have sheltered the people. Israel's ruin was complete.
- Sincere — The men who walked in were mourners on their way to seek the Lord, and they were the ones cut down.
- Spared — God took the godly away from evil still to come. That was mercy to them, and a further chastening on the nation.
- Situated — Being in the right place saved no one. Only being right with the right Person does.
that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves; with oblations and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of Jehovah.
Ishmael had just murdered Gedaliah, the governor, and no one knew it yet. The next day eighty mourners came down from the northern towns with offerings for the temple — so why did God let them walk into a killer's hands?
These travellers knew nothing of the murder at Mizpah the day before. One commentator looks for Ishmael's motive and finds none left.
It was not only jealousy of the good man who fell at his own table, with no suspicion. There he had welcomed these wicked messengers as guests. Nor was it simple rebellion against the conquering king of Babylon that broke out at Mizpah against the native governor and the foreign soldiers. This royal outlaw had tasted blood. He would keep on his desperate course, not caring whom he killed or why.
The temple in Jerusalem lay in ruins. Even so, these men carried offerings "to present at the temple of the LORD."
People even seem to have honoured the worship of the Lord again, at a time when the temple lay completely destroyed and ruined. At least there was a "house of Jehovah" where those who mourned over Israel's condition could go up.
Their appearance was not random. Israel guarded the beard with care, so cutting it was a loud sign of grief.
The Israelites always cultivated the beard and prized it. The law forbade them to "mar the edges" of their beards (Leviticus 19:27). A priest was not to shave off the corner of his beard as a sign of mourning (Leviticus 21:5)… Ezra was in great grief at the sin of the people. He pulled out the hair of his head and of his beard (Ezra 9:3; compare Jeremiah 41:5).
The third sign is not like the other two. It came from outside Israel.
The law forbade this practice, and it forbade making any mark in the flesh. The nations around them did it. They cut themselves for the dead and tattooed their bodies in honour of their gods. The Israelites belonged to Jehovah (Leviticus 19:28; Leviticus 21:5).
Yet one commentator refuses to write these men off. He weighs their mistake against their hearts.
On the second day he killed these men. They may have been ignorant and not free from pagan practices, but they had broken hearts, and they had come to seek the Lord.
Ishmael killed them before they ever reached the temple. One commentator reads this not as an accident of history but as God's purpose.
Who can doubt that it pleased God to take away Gedaliah, and those who sorrowed over the ruins of Israel, before worse evil came? It was mercy to themselves. It was also a further chastening on the guilty people, high and low. Those who acted and felt best of all were swept away, and by the hands of their own countrymen.
These mourners were heading for the right place. The rest of the story shows that this on its own guaranteed nothing.
Chapters 40 and 41 expose a mistaken idea. Some think that a remnant in the land—in the right place—must have some superior standing. But being in the right place is not enough. If we are not right with the right Person, it will only expose us to bad behaviour and godless hypocrisy, as we see here.
- Mourning. Eighty men came grieving the ruin of Israel, in the accepted signs of the time: shaved beards and torn clothes.
- Mixture. One of their signs, cutting the flesh, was a pagan custom the law had banned — real sorrow carried in a wrong form.
- Motive. One writer still judges them gently: ignorant, maybe, but broken-hearted men who had come to seek the Lord.
- Mercy. God took the best away before worse evil came. That was mercy to them, and a further chastening on the nation left behind.
- Marker. Being in the right place is no safeguard; only being right with the right Person is.
And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went; and it came to pass when he met them, he said unto them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.
Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah at Mizpah two days before, and no one knew. Then eighty pilgrims came down the road toward the ruined temple. The killer walked out to meet them in tears, and invited them to a governor who was already dead. What do tears prove, and what can they hide?
One writer weighs the motives behind that weeping. They had run past jealousy and politics.
It was not only jealousy of the good man who fell without suspecting anything at his own table, where he had generously welcomed these agents of evil. Nor was it simply rebellion against the conquering king of Babylon, which broke out at Mizpah against the local governor and the foreign soldiers. This royal criminal had tasted blood and would keep on with his reckless course, not caring whom he killed or why.
Ten of the eighty later bought their lives with hidden stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey. He killed the rest. The same writer names the trait behind that.
It adds to the horrors of the picture too, that Ishmael was as greedy as he was violent and deceitful.
His tears matched what these travellers already felt. They had shaved their beards, torn their clothes and cut themselves. They carried grain offerings and incense. One writer describes the worship that had revived in the land, and who these mourners were.
The worship of the Lord even seems to have returned to honour, at a time when the temple lay completely destroyed and ruined. At least there was a "house of Jehovah" where those who mourned over Israel's condition could go up… On the second day Ishmael killed the men who had come to seek the Lord. They were perhaps ignorant, and not free from pagan practices, but their hearts were broken.
Scripture notes that Ishmael belonged to the royal family. One writer treats that detail as deliberate.
The Holy Spirit adds the words "of the royal family" to Ishmael's name and family, and that means something. Normally, and rightly, this would have been a guarantee of support to a governor, and a protection and shelter for the people. But God was forgotten, His judgments and His will alike ignored, and human corruption runs its course where it was least fitting. The ruin of Israel was truly complete when the royal line sank to the lowest form of cunning, treachery, and murder. And its victims were the best of their own people.
Why were the most sincere people in the land the ones cut down? Ishmael threw their bodies into a trench that king Asa had dug long before, when he feared attack. One writer reads two things at once in the loss.
Who can doubt that God was pleased to take Gedaliah, and those who grieved over the desolations of Israel, away from the evil that was coming? It was mercy to themselves. It was also a further chastening on the guilty people, high and low. Those who acted and felt most rightly were swept away — and by the hands of their own countrymen. What a disgrace! A trench dug for self-defence became the common grave of the best of the remnant, shamefully put to death like this.
These chapters describe the people left in the land, in what looked like the right place. One writer draws the lesson from this scene.
Chapters 40-41 expose the mistaken idea that a remnant in the land — in the right place — must have some superior qualifications. To be in the right place without being right with the right Person will only expose us to bad behaviour and to godless hypocrisy, as we see here. The prophet of God was among them, and they pretended to value his word, but they acted deceitfully.
- False tears. Ishmael's weeping was not grief but bait. He had tasted blood, and no longer cared whom he killed or why.
- True tears. The eighty came with offerings and torn clothes. They truly mourned Israel's ruin, even if their practices were mixed — and their sincerity made them easy to trap.
- Royal shame. The murderer came from the royal family, which marks the ruin as complete. The line meant to shelter the people became its cruellest enemy.
- God's mercy in loss. God took the best of the remnant away from worse evil coming. Their deaths were also a further chastening on a guilty people.
- Place versus Person. Staying in the land, with God's prophet among them, gave no protection. Safety lies in being right with God, not in holding the right position.
And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, he and the men that were with him, slew them, [and cast them] into the midst of the pit.
Jerusalem has fallen, and Babylon has left a small group of Jews in the land under a governor named Gedaliah. Ishmael has already murdered him, and here he turns on eighty men who were on their way to worship.
This chapter sits in a part of Jeremiah that records the collapse of order among the Jews left in the land.
In Jeremiah 40 to Jeremiah 44 we see the anarchy and moral disorder among the Jews left behind in the land and around it, after Babylon carried most of their brothers away as captives. Jeremiah becomes their helper and brings them the word of Jehovah, but he finds among them the greatest unbelief… Now even the little remnant, the poor people left in the land among whom Jeremiah stayed, were full of jealousy, full of their own plans, full of treason, full of deceit and violence. God was not really in their thoughts.
The killer was no outsider. He belonged to the royal family, and one writer shows what that should have meant.
The Holy Spirit adds to the name and family of Ishmael the words "of the royal family," and that description means something. By rights it should have guaranteed help to a governor, and support and shelter to the people. But God was forgotten, His judgments and His will ignored, and human corruption ran its course where it least belonged. The ruin of Israel was complete. The royal family had sunk to the lowest kind of cunning, treachery and murder, and against the best of their own people.
Ishmael met these men in tears and invited them to a governor he had already killed. We cannot explain this killing away as politics, or even as revenge.
This was not only jealousy of the good man who fell without suspicion at his own table, where he had welcomed these agents of evil as guests. Nor was it simply rebellion against the conquering king of Babylon, which then broke out against the native governor and the foreign soldiers at Mizpah. This royal outlaw had tasted blood and would carry on his reckless course, careless whom he killed or why.
Ishmael was not acting alone. One writer names who sent him, and what kind of people his victims were.
He came with evil purposes, sent by Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, and pushed, no doubt, by his own ambition… On the second day he killed the men who had come to seek the Lord. They were perhaps ignorant, and not free from pagan practices, but their hearts were broken.
The pit was not dug as a grave. Men had cut it for defence, and one writer finds in it both mercy and disgrace.
Who can doubt that God was pleased to take away Gedaliah, and those who sorrowed over the desolations of Israel, from evil to come? It was mercy to them. It was also an added chastening on the guilty people, high and low, that those who acted and felt most rightly should be swept away — and swept away by the hands of their own brothers. What a disgrace! A trench dug for self-defence became the common grave of the best of the remnant, put to death in shame.
Ten of the men bought their lives with hidden stores of food. One writer names the trait in Ishmael that saved them.
It adds to the horror of the picture too, that Ishmael was as greedy as he was violent and deceitful.
These men died in the land, with the prophet Jeremiah living among the remnant. That is what makes the chapter a warning.
Chapters 40-41 expose a false idea: that a remnant in the land — in the right place — must therefore have better qualities. To be in the right place without being right with the right Person only exposes us to bad behaviour and godless hypocrisy, as we see here. Even with the prophet of God among them, whose word they pretended to value, they acted with deceit. To call on the Lord Himself out of a pure heart is our safety.
- Cause — God forgotten. The remnant left in the land was full of jealousy, private plans, treason, deceit and violence. God was not really in their thoughts.
- Rank — no safeguard. Ishmael's royal blood should have made him a shelter for the people. Instead the royal line sank to cunning, treachery and murder.
- Tears — no proof. He wept as he went to meet the eighty men, and named a dead governor as their host. He had tasted blood and no longer cared whom he killed or why.
- Victims — the best of them. They came with broken hearts to seek the Lord. God was pleased to take those who grieved over Israel's ruin away from worse evil ahead.
- Result — a trench for a grave. A trench dug for defence became the grave of the best of the remnant, killed by their own brothers. Being in the right place is no safety without being right with the right Person.
But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Do not kill us, for we have hidden stores in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbore, and did not kill them among their brethren.
Ishmael son of Nethaniah had murdered Gedaliah at Mizpah. Two days later he killed eighty men who came there hoping to meet Gedaliah, and verse 8 is the one crack in that slaughter: ten of them keep their lives by handing over food they had hidden in the fields.
The verse gives us no names, only a transaction. One summary of the chapter sets the moment in sequence:
The next day Ishmael met eighty men who came from the north; he invited them to come to Gedaliah, who was dead in his house. When they came to the place he killed them, except ten men, who offered to reveal to him hidden stores of food.
So the ten belonged to a group on pilgrimage, and they alone walked out of Mizpah alive.
The ten men lived because they had something Ishmael wanted:
It adds to the horrors of the picture too, that Ishmael was as greedy as he was violent and deceitful.
Wheat, barley, oil and honey were enough to stop his sword. The hand that would not spare eighty men for pity spared ten for profit.
One writer traces Ishmael's deceit from the meal table to the road:
Ishmael came with ten men and killed Gedaliah and those who were with him, at Mizpah. This murder took place immediately after Ishmael had deceitfully eaten with Gedaliah. On the second day after this, 80 men came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria wanting to meet with Gedaliah. 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.
The weeping came first. The man who cried on the road took payment to spare ten of them.
What makes the greed worse is who is doing the bargaining. Scripture takes care to tell us Ishmael was of the royal line, and that detail is not filler:
The Holy Spirit adds "of the seed royal" to Ishmael's name and family, and that description means something. Ordinarily, and rightly, that royal descent would have been a guarantee of help to a governor, and a support and shelter to the people. But God was forgotten. His judgments and His will alike were slighted. Human corruption takes its course where it was least fitting. The ruin of Israel was complete. The royal line had sunk to the lowest form of cunning, treachery, and murder — and this against the best of their own people, God's own people in the good land, now a wasteland morally as well as physically.
A prince who should have sheltered the people sold them their own lives back instead. One reference work draws the plain conclusion about him: his "craft and ferocity show that he was unworthy of a throne."
Being alive was not the same as being safe. One writer looks at the whole group left in the land and asks what went wrong:
But how quickly evil developed in this remnant! If they had feared the Lord and thought on His name; if they had submitted to the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the rod in the Lord's hand to punish Judah for her sins; if they had remembered that they were part of the guilty nation, and that all were caught up in the common ruin — all might have been well. ... But false ones got among them. In Jeremiah 41 the flesh runs wild. Conflict and confusion reign everywhere. Many fall. Some fall into bondage to the power of evil. Others, driven by the fear of man, run to Egypt for safety — the very world God had delivered them from by His own favour and mighty power. "In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, but the fear of man brings a snare."
The survivors were in the land and the prophet Jeremiah was among them. It did them no good:
Chapters 40–41 expose a false idea. Being a remnant in the land — in the right place — does not by itself give anyone a higher standing. We can be in the right place and still not be right with the right Person. That only exposes us to bad behaviour and to godless hypocrisy, such as we see here. The prophet of God was among them. They pretended to value his word, and still they acted deceitfully. To call on the Lord Himself out of a pure heart is our safety, and for this the Holy Spirit of God is here: to lift Him high before the eyes of our faith.
- Greed — Ishmael's sword stopped for wheat, barley, oil and honey. Commentators see in verse 8 that he was as greedy as he was violent and deceitful.
- Bargain — the ten did not receive mercy; they bribed a murderer. They bought their lives with the food they had hidden in the field.
- Royalty — the killer was of the royal line, the very family meant to shelter the people. When that line sank to cunning and murder, the ruin of Israel was complete.
- Bondage — living through the massacre was not the same as being safe. In this chapter the flesh runs wild, many fall, and some end up in bondage to the power of evil.
- Safety — the right place is not enough. They were in the land, with the prophet among them, and still acted deceitfully. Only calling on the Lord out of a pure heart keeps anyone safe.
And the pit into which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain by the side of Gedaliah was the one which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain.
Ishmael murdered Gedaliah and threw the bodies into a cistern. Scripture then pauses to say who dug that cistern: King Asa, long before, to defend himself against Baasha. Why does that detail matter?
One writer describes the Jews left in the land after Babylon carried the nation away.
In Jeremiah 40 to Jeremiah 44, we have the anarchy and moral disorder among the Jews left behind in the land or nearby. Babylon had carried most of their fellow countrymen away captive. Jeremiah becomes their helper, ministering the word of the Lord to them, but he finds among them the greatest unbelief. Their earlier unbelief had brought the crisis of destruction upon Jerusalem. But now even the little remnant, the poor left in the land, were full of jealousy, full of their own plans, full of treason, full of deceit and violence. God was not really in their thoughts.
Those killed had mourned the ruin of the nation. One commentator reads their removal as mercy to them, and as a further blow to the guilty who survived.
Who can doubt that God was pleased to take Gedaliah away, and those who grieved over the desolation of Israel, from the evil that was coming? It was mercy to themselves. It was an extra chastening on the guilty people, high and low. Those who acted and felt best were swept away — and swept away by the hands of their own countrymen. What a disgrace, that a trench dug for self-defence should become the common burial place of the best of the remnant, killed in this shameful way!
That reading rests on a pattern seen elsewhere in Scripture.
The righteous remnant among God's people may perish, but "no man lays it to heart." Yet if the godly are taken away, it is a solemn sign. Judgment is about to fall, for "the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." It has always been so in the history of the world. As someone has said: "When the Lots are taken out of Sodom, it foreshadows a shower of wrath. Methuselah was taken away a year before the flood. We may conclude that when the Noahs are brought into their arks, it signals a deluge, and that God gathers His harvest before the world's storm, and calls His labourers home before the dark night comes on."
The words are from Isaiah 57:1. The ESV reads: "the righteous man is taken away from calamity."
Asa was a king who gave way to fear of Baasha, king of Israel.
Jeremiah 41:9 refers to a pit (or cistern) made by Asa "for fear of Baasha king of Israel." This is the last historical note about king Asa. In this passing way God would remind us where his decline began — "the fear of man, which brings a snare."
The ESV says Asa made the cistern "for defense against Baasha king of Israel." Older translations read "for fear of Baasha," the wording these writers follow. Another writer suggests what the pit was for.
In Jeremiah 41:9, we read of a pit which he made for fear of Baasha — probably to hide there. How this shows the weakness of man! After all the evidence of the Lord's mercy and power, Asa could forsake Him like this and enter an unholy alliance with a heathen king. He got what he wanted, and Baasha had to abandon his plan. But God had been a witness of it all.
One more trait completes the picture of the man who filled the pit.
It adds to the horror of the picture that Ishmael was as greedy as he was violent and deceitful.
These people had stayed in the land. It saved no one.
Chapters 40-41 expose a mistaken idea: that a remnant in the land — in the right place — must somehow be better qualified. To be in the right place without being right with the right Person only leaves us open to bad behaviour and ungodly hypocrisy. We see it here. The prophet of God was among them, and they pretended to value his word. Yet they acted deceitfully.
- Fear digs. Asa dug the pit because he was afraid of a rival king instead of trusting God — fear of man was where his decline started.
- Fear outlives. Generations later the pit was still there. Scripture's last word about Asa is this monument to his panic.
- Fear fills. What a king dug to save his own life became the mass grave of the best of the remnant, filled by a greedy and violent man.
- Mercy lifts. Those killed had mourned Israel's ruin. God took them away in mercy to themselves, and their loss chastened the guilty who remained.
- Place is no shelter. The right place protects nobody who is not right with God — not even with a prophet living among them.
And Ishmael carried away captive all the remnant of the people that were in Mizpah, the king's daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon.
Mizpah was where the survivors left in Judah had gathered around Gedaliah. In one stroke Ishmael empties the place, taking even the king's daughters, and the rest of the chapter answers whether the crime will stand.
Nebuzaradan had placed these people in Gedaliah's care. Ishmael takes them anyway and heads for Ammon. One writer ties the move to a plan already agreed with the Ammonite king, and then marks what God does with it:
Carrying on, it seems, the plans made with the king of the Ammonites, Ishmael next carries away those whom he did not kill… Yet even when God permits the severest measures of shame and suffering, He disappoints the guilty at the moment of their greatest success.
Ishmael was not acting alone, and he was not acting only for himself. One account traces the whole sequence — the warning Gedaliah refused, the murders, the captives driven toward Ammon:
The captains of the forces that remained gathered around Gedaliah, with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, of the royal family, at their head. But Ishmael came with evil intentions. Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, had sent him, and no doubt his own ambition pushed him on… He led captive all the rest of the people who were at Mizpah, along with the king's daughters, and took them to the Ammonites.
Another writer names the grievance behind it:
Jealousy, however, will spoil everything. A man of royal blood named Ishmael seems to have thought that he should have been appointed governor.
Scripture records Ishmael's royal descent for a reason. The detail measures how far Israel had fallen:
It is not a meaningless description that the Holy Spirit adds to the name and family of Ishmael, "of the royal family." Normally, and rightly, this would have promised help to a governor, and support and shelter to the people. But God was forgotten. His judgments and His will were ignored, and human corruption takes its course where it least belongs. The ruin of Israel was complete when the royal family sank into the lowest form of cunning, treachery, and murder — and this against the best of their own people…
Ishmael never reaches Ammon. One writer follows the story to its end:
However, Johanan and the captains of the forces with him free the captives from Ishmael, who flees to Baalis the king of the children of Ammon. Johanan and those he has delivered take refuge for a time at the inn of Chimham at Bethlehem, waiting for a chance to slip away into Egypt, because they fear the Chaldeans.
The rescue was real, but the rescuer was no safer a guide than the man he defeated:
The man who freed the captives and drove off their enemy was no true friend of Israel, because he paid little attention to the word of the Lord… Fear is just as much evidence of unbelief as bold or treacherous rebellion, even if it is less blatant. The prophet had warned them to submit to the king of Babylon, not to flee into Egypt.
One writer sets what could have been beside what actually happened:
But how soon evil developed in this remnant! They could have feared the Lord and thought on His name. They could have submitted to the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the rod in the Lord's hand to punish Judah for her sins. Then all might have been well… In Jeremiah 41 the flesh is rampant. Conflict and confusion reign supreme. Many fall. Some end up in bondage to the power of evil. Others, driven by the fear of man, seek refuge in Egypt — that world from which God had delivered them by His sovereign favour and mighty power.
The lesson drawn is that rescue is not the same as recovery:
Where there is much restlessness, though a measure of deliverance is experienced, as in the case of this remnant, yet, unless time is taken to learn and act on the present mind of God, worse trouble will follow than was known before.
- Trust betrayed. Nebuzaradan placed these people in Gedaliah's care. Ishmael seizes them and heads for Ammon.
- Trust exploited. The Ammonite king backed the plot, and Ishmael's own ambition drove it. Jealousy over the governorship played its part.
- Trust disgraced. The royal line should have sheltered the people. Instead it produced cunning, treachery, and murder.
- Trust restored. God disappoints the guilty at the height of their success. Johanan frees the captives, and Ishmael flees to the Ammonite king.
- Trust refused. Freed but fearful, the remnant heads for Egypt against the prophet's word. Fear is unbelief too.