Jeremiahchapter 41
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Speaks with:Jeremiah 40×8Jeremiah 41×3Jeremiah 42×32 Samuel 3×21 Samuel 30×22 Kings 25×2
Summary
Chapter summary
In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, of the royal seed, eats bread with Gedaliah at Mizpah and murders him, with the Jews and the Chaldean soldiers there. The next day, before the news is out, eighty pilgrims from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria come toward the house of Jehovah with offerings and incense, beards shaven and clothes rent; Ishmael goes out weeping to meet them, brings them inside, and kills seventy, filling the cistern King Asa had made. He carries off the rest, including the king's daughters, toward Ammon. Johanan overtakes him at the great waters in Gibeon and recovers the captives; Ishmael escapes with eight men. The survivors camp at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem, already looking toward Egypt.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–10 Gedaliah Murdered at the Table in Mizpah
- B. 11–18 Johanan Pursues, and the Remnant Turns Toward Egypt
The outline
A.Gedaliah Murdered at the Table in Mizpahvv. 1 to 10
Read vv. 1 to 10 →B.Johanan Pursues, and the Remnant Turns Toward Egyptvv. 11 to 18
Read vv. 11 to 18 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 41The history
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.
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Jeremiah
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 41. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.