Jeremiah 41:1-3

2. The plot executed (Jeremiah 41:1-3)

TRANSLATION

(1) And it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam accompanied by ten men who were also royal princes. And they ate bread there together in Mizpah. (2) And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him rose up and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and killed him whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land. (3) Ishmael also smote all the Jews who were with Gedaliah in Mizpah, the Chaldeans who were found there, and all the soldiers.

COMMENTS

It was in the seventh month that Ishmael began to set his plan in motion. Unfortunately the narrator has failed to mention the year in which the assassination took place. Does he mean that Gedaliah was assassinated in the same year in which Jerusalem was captured and burned? If so then Gedaliah's governorship lasted only about three months. It is perhaps better (though certainly not necessary) to think here in terms of a governorship which lasted a few years. The Chaldean armies which were to avenge the death of governor Gedaliah arrived in Judah in 582 B.C. (Jeremiah 52:30). If Gedaliah died in the seventh month of 587 B.C., the year of Jerusalem's destruction, it would be difficult to explain why it took the Chaldean armies six years to respond to the new rebellion in Judah.

When Ishmael and his crew of ten cutthroats arrived in Mizpah Gedaliah still suspected nothing. He invited these men of the nobility to dine with him (Jeremiah 41:1). During the course of the meal, in flagrant violation of the rules of oriental hospitality, the assassins suddenly rose up and slew Gedaliah (Jeremiah 41:2). In the ensuing panic these dedicated extremists Were also successful in slaying all the Jews present in the banquet hall and even the Chaldean bodyguard (Jeremiah 41:3). what a dastardly deed! In the ancient Near East when a man accepted an invitation to dine with another the host was honor-bound to protect his guests from all harm and the guests were expected to reciprocate in good faith.[346] Given these circumstances Gedaliah was actually defenseless. Josephus[347] adds the tradition that Gedaliah was intoxicated at the time he was murdered. Throughout the period of the exile the Jews observed the third day of the seventh month as a fast day to commemorate the assassination of Gedaliah (Zechariah 7:5; Zechariah 8:19).

[346] Bright, op. cit., p. 254.

[347] Antiquities X. 9.