Jeremiah 41:7

7 But when they came into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and threw them into^[a] 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 80 men came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria who had shaved their beards, torn their garments, and gashed themselves, and who were carrying grain and incense offerings to bring to the temple of the Lord.

6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah came out of Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. When he encountered them, he said: "Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam!"

7 But when they came into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and threw them into a cistern.

8 However, there were 10 men among them who said to Ishmael, "Don't kill us, for we have hidden treasure in the field-wheat, barley, oil, and honey!" So he stopped and did not kill them along with their companions.

9 Now the cistern where Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men he had struck down was a large one that King Asa had made in the encounter with Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled [it] with the slain.

Footnotes

• [a]. Syr; MT reads slaughtered them in