Jeremiahchapter 41
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Key verse
And they departed, and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Beth–lehem, to go to enter into Egypt,
It stands in scene B of the chapter, verses 11 to 18.
The chapter
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
Where the chapter sits
Jeremiah 41 falls in Jerusalem's fall narrated (chapters 34–45). Zedekiah's vacillation; Jehoiakim burns the scroll (36); siege and fall (39); assassination of Gedaliah; flight to Egypt with the remnant.
Before it: Book of consolation, chapters 30–33. After it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 46–51.
The whole shape of Jeremiah→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 rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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
A. Gedaliah Murdered at the Table in Mizpah
1. (vv. 1-3)
a.in the seventh month: Ishmael, of the royal seed of David's line, comes to Gedaliah at Mizpah under cover of a shared meal and murders him at the table, along with the Jews and Chaldean soldiers present. Keil identifies the motive as dynastic and nationalist together, Ishmael's royal blood and Baalis of Ammon's political interest in destabilizing a Babylonian-appointed government meeting in one act. The treachery of eating bread together first, ancient hospitality's strongest bond, before the sword is drawn marks the murder as a violation the text itself flags by naming the meal.
Jeremiah 41:1, 1 voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
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.”
Jeremiah 41:2, 1 voice
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.”
Jeremiah 41:3, 2 voices
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
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
2. (vv. 4-7)
a.the second day after he had slain Gedaliah: The day after the murder, before news has spread, eighty pilgrims arrive from the northern towns of Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, mourning rites visible on their bodies, beards shaven and clothes rent and flesh cut, bringing offerings toward the ruined temple. Ishmael meets them weeping, a performance the commentators read as calculated grief, and lures them into the city where he slaughters most of them and casts the bodies into a pit. Gill notes that pilgrims from the north still traveling toward Jerusalem's site, temple burned or not, testify that devotion to the place survived even the fall of the old northern kingdom.
Jeremiah 41:5, 3 voices
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.”
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
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 41:6, 1 voice
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
Jeremiah 41:7, 1 voice
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
3. (vv. 8-10)
a.Slay us not: for we have treasures in the field: Ten of the eighty buy their lives by revealing hidden stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey, and Ishmael spares them for the treasure rather than mercy, a detail Henry reads as showing the murderer's greed outweighing even his rage. The pit he fills with the dead is identified as the one Asa had made generations earlier against Baasha king of Israel, an old defensive work turned mass grave, which Barnes notes ties this chapter's violence back to the kingdom's oldest internal wars. Ishmael then takes the remnant at Mizpah captive, including the king's own daughters left in Gedaliah's care, and sets out for Ammon.
Jeremiah 41:9, 2 voices
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
Jeremiah 41:9
“He slew so many that he could not afford them each a grave, or would not do them so much honour, but threw them all promiscuously into one pit. Among these last that were doomed to the slaughter there were ten that obtained a pardon, by working, not on the compassion, but the covetousness, of those that had them at their mercy,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 41:10, 1 voice
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
B. Johanan Pursues, and the Remnant Turns Toward Egypt
1. (vv. 11-15)
a.heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done: Johanan and the other captains hear of Ishmael's massacre and pursue him, overtaking him at the great waters of Gibeon, and when the captive people see Johanan's forces they turn back to him with relief. Keil notes the captives' quick defection shows they went with Ishmael by force rather than sympathy, glad for rescue rather than resistant to it. Ishmael himself escapes with only eight men to the Ammonites, Baalis's territory offering him refuge from the vengeance Johanan's larger force could have exacted.
Jeremiah 41:12, 1 voice
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.”
Jeremiah 41:13, 1 voice
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.”
2. (vv. 16-18)
a.the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah: Johanan recovers the whole remnant, soldiers, women, children and eunuchs, from Gibeon, but instead of returning to Mizpah the group turns south toward Bethlehem, planning to flee into Egypt out of fear of Chaldean reprisal for Gedaliah's murder. Henry observes the irony sharply, the men who rescued the remnant from Ishmael's violence now propose to abandon the very land Gedaliah died governing, trading Babylon's expected wrath for Egypt's supposed safety. The chapter closes on that fear rather than a resolution, setting up Jeremiah's warning in the chapter that follows.
Jeremiah 41:16, 2 voices
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
Jeremiah 41:16
“By the conduct and courage of Johanan, though the death of the slain is not revenged, yet the prisoners are recovered, and he now becomes their commander-in-chief,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 41:17, 4 voices
Jeremiah 41:17
“And they departed,.... From Mizpah, Johanan, and the captains of the forces, and all the people rescued from Ishmael: and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem: so called perhaps from Chimham, the son of Barzillai the Gileadite, to whom David or Solomon might give this place to dwell in, 2Sa 19:37, 1Ki 2:”
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.”
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
Jeremiah 41:17-18
“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 41:18, 1 voice
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
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 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826); Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill and Matthew Henry.
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