Jeremiah 41:7

7 When they reached the middle of the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them, and threw them into a cistern.

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 eighty men arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Samaria, with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed, bringing grain offerings and incense to present at the temple of the Lord.

6 And Ishmael son of Nethaniah came out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam."

7 When they reached the middle of the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them, and threw them into a cistern.

8 But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, "Do not kill us, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the fields." So he refrained, and did not kill them along with their companions.

9 Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men whom he had struck down was the large cistern that King Asa had made for defense against King Baasha of Israel; Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled that cistern with those whom he had killed.

Footnotes

• [a]. Syr: Heb lacks [and threw them]; compare verse 9