Jeremiah 41:7

7 {And then}, the moment of their coming to the middle of the city, then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, {along with} the men who [were] with him, slaughtered them [and threw them] to the middle of the pit.

Jeremiah 41:7 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 41:7

And it was [so], when they came into the midst of the city,
&c.] Where Gedaliah's house was, to which he invited them; and as they went in, he shut up the court, as Josephus ^F8 says, and slew them, as it here follows: that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, [and cast them] into the
midst of the pit;
when he had slain them, the fourscore men he had enticed into the city, except ten of them, he cast their dead bodies into a pit near at hand: he, and the men that [were] with him;
Ishmael and the ten princes, with what servants they brought with them; these were all concerned in the death of these men.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 4.

Jeremiah 41:7 In-Context

5 then men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men [with] shaven beards and torn garments, [who had] cut themselves with blades, {having} grain offerings and frankincense in their hands to bring [to] the {temple} of Yahweh.

6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah came out to meet them from Mizpah, {weeping as he came}. {And then} as [he was] meeting them, he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam."

7 {And then}, the moment of their coming to the middle of the city, then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, {along with} the men who [were] with him, slaughtered them [and threw them] to the middle of the pit.

8 But ten men were found among them, and they said to Ishmael, "You must not kill us, for {we have} hidden treasures in the field, wheat, and barley, and oil, and honey. So he refrained and he did not kill them in the midst of their fellow countrymen.

9 Now the pit [into] which Ishmael threw all the corpses of the men whom he had killed {along with} Gedaliah [was the same one] that King Asa had made because of Baasha the king of Israel, [who was] against him. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled [it with] the slain ones.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "And it was"
• [b] Literally "and"
• [c] The Hebrew verb is singular
• [d] Or "cistern"