Jeremiahchapter 41
18 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and one of the king’s chief officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and they ate a meal together there.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
This chapter records the murder of the governor Gedaliah at Mizpah, only months after the fall of Jerusalem. The killer came from the royal family of David and had the backing of the king of Ammon. Its first hearers had lost their city and now lost the last government they had. They also knew that Babylon would punish the death of its governor. Listen for the meal at the start of the chapter and what sharing bread meant in that world. The chapter ends with the survivors turned toward Egypt.
Context
- Who
- A remnant that had just lost its last government and expected Babylonian reprisals
- What
- An account of Ishmael son of Nethaniah murdering Gedaliah and a band of pilgrims, carrying off the people of Mizpah, and their rescue by Johanan.
- Where
- Mizpah and its great cistern, the great pool at Gibeon, and Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem.
- When
- The seventh month, about 586 BC, a few months after the fall of Jerusalem.
- Why
- To show how the remnant's last hope of peace was destroyed from within and why the survivors came to fear Babylon.
Historical context
Ishmael son of Nethaniah is described as being of the royal family and one of the chief officers of the king. That is the motive: a man with a claim to David's throne killing the commoner the empire had put in charge, with backing from Ammon.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The murder happens at a meal. Ten men eat bread together at Mizpah and then draw swords. In that culture sharing a table created an obligation of protection that was close to sacred, so killing a host at his own table was treachery of the worst kind.
The next day eighty men arrive from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, the old northern territory, with beards shaved, clothes torn, and their bodies gashed, carrying grain offerings and incense to the house of the LORD. The temple had been burned months earlier. They were still walking to the ruin to make offerings on the site, in full mourning. Ishmael meets them weeping as he goes, lures them into the town, and kills seventy of them.
The bodies are thrown into a large cistern which the chapter says King Asa had made for defence, matching the account of Asa fortifying Mizpah generations earlier. Ten men buy their lives by revealing hidden stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey, which is what people did in a ruined countryside: cache food in pits and tell nobody.
Significance
The first hearers had watched the last fragile thing break. Ishmael carries off the survivors toward Ammon, Johanan chases him and recovers the people, and Ishmael escapes with eight men.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
What that left behind was fear. The group stops near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt, because they are afraid of what Babylon will do about a murdered governor. The next two chapters turn on that fear.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
How it is read
Malbim and Rashi carry English on this chapter in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and the version of each other commentator is named where he is first quoted. Every quotation on this card is held to fifty words or fewer because each translation is modern, and no headword carrying the verse in a translation's wording is quoted.
Rashi and Malbim read the murder of Gedaliah from different sides. Malbim is quoted from the version Sefaria titles Sefaria Community Translation, which it reports as CC0. He gives Ishmael two motives. The first is that "Since he was of the royal seed he thought that the governorship was due him" (Malbim on Jeremiah 41:1:1). The second is that the king of Ammon sent him, wanting the land under his own rule. Rashi gives the officers a smaller motive: "They were jealous of him that he took a high position" (Rashi on Jeremiah 41:1:1).
The eighty men from Shechem Rashi reads as pilgrims caught by the news. "When they left home, they were unaware of the destruction of the Temple", and on the road they heard, tore their clothes and shaved their beards (Rashi on Jeremiah 41:5:1). Malbim reads Ishmael's weeping as a mask. He passed himself off as one mourning an order of Gedaliah to kill them, so that the killing would be laid on the dead governor (Malbim on Jeremiah 41:6:1).
The ninth verse, which places the killing in Gedaliah's hand, is where the two readings part most plainly. Rashi lays a share of the blame on Gedaliah, who would not heed Johanan's warning, so that "Scripture accounts it for him as though they had been slain by him" (Rashi on Jeremiah 41:9:1). Malbim reads the phrase as Ishmael's claim that Gedaliah had ordered the killing (Malbim on Jeremiah 41:8:1). Malbim notes that Asa made the pit to serve the pilgrims (Malbim on Jeremiah 41:8:1). In his words, "by the sins of the generation, they threw there the corpses of those going to the house of the LORD" (Malbim on Jeremiah 41:8:1).
The lodging place of the seventeenth verse Rashi traces to David, who gave it to Chimham the son of Barzilai on his return from the war with Absalom (Rashi on Jeremiah 41:17:1).
The corpus carries eleven further notes on this chapter without an English text. Each is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so each is cited here and none is quoted. The notes of Metzudat David are cited at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 41:2:1, 41:3:1, 41:4:1, 41:7:1, 41:11:1, 41:13:1, 41:14:1, 41:15:1 and 41:18:1. The notes of Radak are cited at Radak on Jeremiah 41:2:1 and 41:6:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries fifteen rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Megillah 15a:3. On the second verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 1:1:6, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:5:4, Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:5:6 and Niddah 61a:15. On the fifth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Moed Katan 3:27, Jerusalem Talmud Moed Katan 3:7:12, Jerusalem Talmud Moed Katan 3:7:13 and Moed Katan 26a:22. On the eighth verse it holds Pesikta Rabbati 27:1. On the ninth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Niddah 9:1, Ein Yaakov, Niddah 9:2, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 44:17:21 and Niddah 61a:14.
On the fifteenth verse it holds Otzar Midrashim, The Ten Exiles 2:14. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Malbim, Malbim on Jeremiah 41:1:1 to 41:8:1, Sefaria Community Translation, reported CC0; Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 41:1:1 to 41:17:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 41:2:1, 41:3:1, 41:4:1, 41:7:1, 41:11:1, 41:13:1, 41:14:1, 41:15:1 and 41:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 41:2:1 and 41:6:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/41.json, the 15 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Gedaliah Murdered at the Table in Mizpah
Jeremiah 41:1-3
In the seventh month: Ishmael, “a member of the royal family,” comes with ten men to Gedaliah, and “they ate a meal together there.” After the meal they strike Gedaliah down, with the Jews and the Chaldean soldiers. Keil notes the part of Baalis king of Ammon named in 40:14.
Jeremiah 41:1
“The seventh month - Gedaliah’s government lasted less than two months. Even - Rather, and. Ishmael was descended probably from Elishama the son of David 2Sa 5:16. Ten grandees each with his retinue would have aroused suspicion, but the smallness of Ishmael’s following put Gedaliah completely off his guard.”
struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam: The men rise from the meal to kill their host. John Gill notes the verb for the killing is singular, which suggests Ishmael dealt the mortal blow. The verse closes on the office Gedaliah held, so the murder strikes at the king of Babylon's appointment as well as the man.
Jeremiah 41:2
“Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him,.... After they had eat and drank well, they rose up from their seats at table: and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him; they all drew their swords and thrust at him, and were assisting in the murder of him; though it is probable that it was Ishmael that gave him the mortal wound, since the phrase, "and slew him", is singular.”
as well as the Chaldean soldiers who were there: Ishmael kills Gedaliah's attendants and the Babylonian soldiers with him. John Calvin stresses that Ishmael had sworn to be faithful to Gedaliah and was received at his table as by a father. Matthew Henry notes how quietly it was done, so that the people in the fields knew nothing.
Jeremiah 41:3
“Now Ishmael had sworn, as we have seen, that he would be faithful to Gedaliah. He was again received by him, and was treated hospitably; and from his table he rose up to slay the innocent man, who was his friend, and had acted towards him, as it has been stated, the part of a father.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 41:3
“As if enough of the blood of Israelites had not been shed by the Chaldeans, their own princes here mingle it with the blood of the Chaldeans. The vine-dressers and the husbandmen were busy in the fields, and knew nothing of this bloody massacre; so artfully was it carried on and concealed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 41:4-7
On the second day after the murder of Gedaliah: The day after the murder, eighty men come from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria with shaved beards, bringing offerings “for the house of the LORD.” Ishmael goes out “weeping as he went” and brings them into the city. There he and his men slaughter them and throw them into a cistern.
carrying grain offerings and frankincense: The eighty come from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria in the old northern kingdom, bringing offerings for a temple already burned. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that a temple's site stayed holy after its destruction. Shiloh had once held the tabernacle itself.
Jeremiah 41:5
“These three towns all lay in the tribe of Ephraim, and in the district planted by Salmaneser with Cuthites; but through the fact of these men having cut themselves (see Jer 16:6 note), is suspicious, yet they were probably pious Israelites, going up to Jerusalem, carrying the meat offering usual at the feast of tabernacles, of which this was the season, and mourning over the destruction, not of the city, but of the temple, to the repairs of which we find the members of this tribe contributing in Josiah’s time 2Ch 34:9.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 41:5
“The people of God used to go rejoicing to the house of the Lord, but these went in the habit of mourners, with their clothes rent and their heads shaven; for the providence of God loudly called to weeping and mourning, because it was not with the faithful worshippers of God as in months past.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 41:5
“Lord--that is, the place where the house of the Lord had stood (2Ki 25:9). The place in which a temple had stood, even when it had been destroyed, was held sacred [PAPINIAN]. Those "from Shiloh" would naturally seek the house of the Lord, since it was at Shiloh it originally was set up (Jos 18:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
weeping as he went: Ishmael goes out from Mizpah weeping, and Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes both take the tears as a lure. He invites the men to Gedaliah, whom he has killed, and Clarke supplies the promise that Gedaliah would give them vineyards and fields. Barnes says the Septuagint has the men weeping.
Jeremiah 41:6
“Weeping all along as he went - This felonious hypocrite pretended that he also was deeply afflicted, and wished to bear them company in their sorrow. Come to Gedaliah - He will appoint you vineyards and fields.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
threw them into a cistern: The killing waits until the men are inside the city. Adam Clarke supposes Ishmael had a band of men waiting in Mizpah to overpower eighty. Matthew Henry has no doubt he took their offerings too, a murderer ready for sacrilege.
Jeremiah 41:7
“Slew them - He kept the murder of Gedaliah secret, and no doubt had a band of his assassins lodged in Mizpah; and he decoyed these fourscore men thither that he might have strength to slay them. He kept ten alive because they told him they had treasures hidden in a field, which they would show him. Whether he kept his word with them is not recorded. He could do nothing good or great; and it is likely that, when he had possessed himself of those treasures, he served them as he had served their companions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 41:8-10
But ten of the men among them said to Ishmael: Ten of the men save their lives by telling of “hidden treasure in the field.” The cistern he fills with the dead is the one “King Asa had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel” (1 Kings 15:22). Ishmael takes the remnant captive and sets off for the Ammonites.
Jeremiah 41:8
“Treasures - Hidden stores; which would be of great value to Ishmael in his retreat back to Baalis.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 41:8
“Skin for skin, and all that a man has, will he give for his life. Ishmael saved them, not for the love of mercy, but for the love of money. Here were riches kept for the owners thereof, not to their hurt ( Eccl. v. 13 ) and to cause them to lose their lives ( Job xxxi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a large one that King Asa had made: Asa built up Mizpah in war with Baasha of Israel, and Adam Clarke takes the cistern for a reservoir from that work (1 Kings 15:22). A defense against Israel becomes the grave of pilgrims from Israel's old lands. Matthew Henry notes they were thrown in together without graves.
Jeremiah 41:9
“Now the pit - was it which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha - See 1Ki 15:22. Asa made this cistern as a reservoir for water for the supply of the place; for he built and fortified Mizpah at the time that he was at war with Baasha, king of Israel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ishmael takes the whole remnant of Mizpah toward Ammon, including daughters of the king, and Adam Clarke supposes he meant to sell them as slaves. Nebuzaradan had placed these people in Gedaliah's care. Matthew Henry warns that the end of one trouble can be the start of a greater.
Jeremiah 41:10
“This melancholy story is a warning to us never to be secure in this world. Worse may be yet to come when we think the worst is over; and that end of one trouble, which we fancy to be the end of all trouble, may prove to be the beginning of another, of a greater.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Johanan Pursues, and the Remnant Turns Toward Egypt
Jeremiah 41:11-15
heard of all the crimes that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed: Johanan and the commanders pursue Ishmael and find him “near the great pool in Gibeon.” When the captives see Johanan, “they rejoiced” and went over, which shows they had been taken by force. Ishmael escapes with eight men to the Ammonites, the land of Baalis who had sent him.
near the great pool in Gibeon: Johanan catches Ishmael at the great pool of Gibeon, where the men of Abner and Joab met in 2 Samuel 2, as Matthew Henry recalls. Albert Barnes notes an open pool and a spring-fed reservoir still exist there, about two miles north of Mizpah. Ishmael had gone a short way.
Jeremiah 41:12
“An open pool still exists at Gibeon, and a large subterranean reservoir fed by a copious natural spring. Gibeon is about two miles north of Mizpah.”
they rejoiced: The captives' joy at seeing Johanan tells how they had gone with Ishmael. John Gill identifies them as the people taken from Mizpah, who saw Johanan's men as deliverers from captivity in Ammon. They had been taken by force.
Jeremiah 41:13
“Now it came to pass, that, when all the people which were with Ishmael,.... That is, those which he had brought captives from Mizpah; not those that came with him thither: saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, they were glad; looking upon them as their deliverers; hoping by their means to be preserved from being carried captives to the king of Ammon.”
turned and went over to Johanan: The people Ishmael had taken captive leave him as soon as Johanan appears. Adam Clarke says they were weary of the tyranny of Ishmael. Without them Ishmael has only his own men, and verse 15 counts them.
Jeremiah 41:14
“Went unto Johanan - They were weary of the tyranny of Ishmael, and were glad of an opportunity to abandon him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
eight of his men escaped: Ishmael came to Mizpah with ten men and leaves with eight. John Gill supposes the other two were killed in the skirmish, taken, or fled another way. He returns to the Ammonites who had set him on, Gill adds, without the honor he had hoped to win.
Jeremiah 41:16-18
Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies with him took the whole remnant: Johanan takes the remnant, “the soldiers, women, children, and court officials,” and they stop at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem “in order to proceed into Egypt.” The reason is fear of reprisal: “they were afraid of the Chaldeans” because Ishmael had killed Babylon’s governor. The chapter ends on that fear.
Jeremiah 41:16
“The women - children, and the eunuchs - These were all most probably, persons who belonged to the palace and harem of Zedekiah: some of them his own concubines and their children.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
stayed in Geruth Chimham, near Bethlehem: Matthew Henry takes Geruth Chimham as the land David gave to Chimham son of Barzillai, near Bethlehem (2 Samuel 19:37). Albert Barnes says the name means the lodging place of Chimham. It was a stop on the way to Egypt.
Jeremiah 41:17
“The habitation of Chimham - The Hebrew text has Geruth-Chemoham, of which place nothing is known. The Masoretes read: Geruth-Chimham, the Khan or Caravanserai of Chimham, son of the rich Barzillai (marginal reference). The substitution is incapable now of proof or disproof, but it is possibly right.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 41:17
“We have scarcely such an instance of perfidious cruelty in all the scripture; so that with John, when he saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, we may well wonder with great admiration. But God permitted it for the completing of the ruin of an unhumbled people, and the filling up of the measure of their judgments, who had filled up the measure of their iniquities.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 41:17
“It was thence called the habitation of Chimham (Geruth-Chimham), though it reverted to David's heirs in the year of jubilee. "Caravanserais" (a compound Persian word, meaning "the house of a company of travellers") differ from our inns, in that there is no host to supply food, but each traveller must carry with him his own.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
they were afraid of the Chaldeans: The remnant fears Babylon will avenge Gedaliah. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say the better course was to lay the blame on Ishmael son of Nethaniah and clear themselves. Matthew Henry calls the fear a pretext for an old wish to return to Egypt.
Jeremiah 41:18
“But they only make use of this as a sham to cover that corrupt inclination of their unbelieving ancestors, which was so strong in them, to return into Egypt. Those will justly lose their comfort in real fears that excuse themselves in sin with pretended fears.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.