But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who 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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Royal Blood Turned Assassin
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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A Warning Refused
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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Bread Shared, Then Blood
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.
William KellyIt 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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Mercy Hidden Inside the Loss
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 Panic That Followed
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."
The Fast That Remembered This Day
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?
Summary
- 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.