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Texts -- Jeremiah 41:1-18 (NET)

Context
41:1 But in the seventh month Ishmael , the son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama who was a member of the royal family and had been one of Zedekiah’s chief officers , came with ten of his men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah . While they were eating a meal together with him there at Mizpah , 41:2 Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him stood up , pulled out their swords , and killed Gedaliah , the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan . Thus Ishmael killed the man that the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the country . 41:3 Ishmael also killed all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Babylonian soldiers who happened to be there . 41:4 On the day after Gedaliah had been murdered , before anyone even knew about it, 41:5 eighty men arrived from Shechem , Shiloh , and Samaria . They had shaved off their beards , torn their clothes , and cut themselves to show they were mourning. They were carrying grain offerings and incense to present at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. 41:6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them. He was pretending to cry as he walked along . When he met them, he said to them, “Come with me to meet Gedaliah son of Ahikam .” 41:7 But as soon as they were inside the city , Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw their bodies in a cistern . 41:8 But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael , “Do not kill us. For we will give you the stores of wheat , barley , olive oil , and honey we have hidden in a field . So he spared their lives and did not kill them along with the rest . 41:9 Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel . Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies . 41:10 Then Ishmael took captive all the people who were still left alive in Mizpah . This included the royal princesses and all the rest of the people in Mizpah that Nebuzaradan , the captain of the royal guard , had put under the authority of Gedaliah son of Ahikam . Ishmael son of Nethaniah took all these people captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites .
Johanan Rescues the People Ishmael Had Carried Off
41:11 Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him heard about all the atrocities that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed . 41:12 So they took all their troops and went to fight against Ishmael son of Nethaniah . They caught up with him near the large pool at Gibeon . 41:13 When all the people that Ishmael had taken captive saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers with him, they were glad . 41:14 All those people that Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned and went over to Johanan son of Kareah . 41:15 But Ishmael son of Nethaniah managed to escape from Johanan along with eight of his men , and he went on over to Ammon . 41:16 Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him led off all the people who had been left alive at Mizpah . They had rescued them from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after he killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam . They led off the men , women , children , soldiers , and court officials whom they had brought away from Gibeon . 41:17 They set out to go to Egypt to get away from the Babylonians, but stopped at Geruth Kimham near Bethlehem . 41:18 They were afraid of what the Babylonians might do because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam , whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the country .

Pericope

NET
  • Jer 41:11-18 -- Johanan Rescues the People Ishmael Had Carried Off

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • The Philistines, as we have already seen in Judges, were Israel's primary enemy to the west at this time. Samson, too, fought the Philistines (Judg. 13-16).52There are about 150 references to the Philistines in 1 and 2 Samuel...
  • Nebuzaradan, Nebuchadnezzar's commander-in-chief, returned to destroy Jerusalem more thoroughly and to preclude any successful national uprising in Judah.His burning of Yahweh's house (v. 9) was a statement that the Babylonia...
  • Baxter, J. Sidlow. Explore the Book. 6 vols. London: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, 1965.Bromiley, Geoffrey W. God and Marriage. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980.Bullock, C. Hassell. An Introduction to the Poe...
  • The biblical records of the times in which Jeremiah ministered are 2 Kings 21-25 and 2 Chronicles 33-36. His contemporary prophets were Zephaniah and Habakkuk before the Exile, and Ezekiel and Daniel after it began.King Manas...
  • Jeremiah's purpose was to call his hearers to repentance in view of God's judgment on Judah, which would come soon from an army from the north (chs. 2-45). Judgment was coming because God's people had forsaken Yahweh and had ...
  • I. Introduction ch. 1A. The introduction of Jeremiah 1:1-3B. The call of Jeremiah 1:4-191. The promise of divine enablement 1:4-102. Two confirming visions 1:11-19II. Prophecies about Judah chs. 2-45A. Warnings of judgment on...
  • Most of the prophetical books begin with some indication of authorship and date to put them in their historical contexts, and this is true of the Book of Jeremiah.1:1 The words (Heb. debarim, writings, prophecies, deeds, and ...
  • 1:4 The prophet now began speaking to his readers and telling them what the Lord had said to him. Throughout this book, an indication that the Lord had told Jeremiah something is often the sign of a new pericope, as here (cf....
  • This section consists of four parts: a summary of Jeremiah's Temple Sermon (vv. 2-6), the prophet's arrest and trial (vv. 7-16), the elders' plea for his life (vv. 17-19, 24), and the incident involving Uriah and his executio...
  • The Book of Consolation contained messages of future hope for Judah (chs. 30-33). Now Jeremiah returned to document her present judgment. Chapters 34-45 continue the theme of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem from chapters 2-29...
  • "While ch. 36 is, in a sense, an independent unit, it is at the same time the last segment in a tradition complex' which begins at ch. 26, where Jeremiah is vindicated as a true prophet of Yahweh by Jerusalem's highest court ...
  • One of the important theological lessons of this segment of the book, especially chapters 40-44, is that disobedience leads to judgment."One would think that the fall of Jerusalem would have taught Judah a lesson she would ne...
  • 40:13-14 One of the remaining Judean princes, Johanan (cf. v. 8), asked Gedaliah if he was aware that the king of Ammon had encouraged another one of the Judean princes, Ishmael (cf. v. 8), to assassinate him. Baalis, the Amm...
  • 41:4-5 Two days after Gedaliah's murder, before the news of it had spread, 80 religious pilgrims came down from the old towns of Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria in northern Israel on their way to Jerusalem. Their dress and other...
  • This chapter continues the narrative begun at 41:4. The remnant leaders asked Jeremiah to obtain the Lord's word concerning their proposed flight to Egypt (vv. 1-6).42:1-3 Then Johanan and his fellow leaders of the refugees a...
  • This chapter records an incident late in Jeremiah's ministry. How much later than chapter 43 is unknown. Many commentators suppose it dates from about 580 B.C. because it would have taken some time for the Judean refugees to ...
  • This chapter belongs after chapter 36 chronologically, either after 36:8 or 36:32. It serves as an appendix to the historical incidents recorded there. Perhaps the writer or final editor placed it here to show that Yahweh exe...
  • It is not possible to date this oracle exactly, but Jeremiah evidently gave it sometime during Josiah's reign (640-609 B.C.; v. 1).47:1 Jeremiah received a message from the Lord concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh conqu...
  • This oracle is similar to the one in Isaiah 15 and 16.555Other oracles against Moab appear in Ezekiel 25:8-11, Amos 2:1-3, and Zephaniah 2:9, but this is the longest one. It is very difficult to say when Jeremiah gave this or...
  • The Ammonites lived north of the Moabites, north of the Arnon River for most of their history, and east of the tribal territories of Gad and Reuben. However, the Ammonites had taken over some Israelite territory in Transjorda...
  • This chapter has many similarities to 2 Kings 24:18-25:30 with the exception of 25:22-26, the story of Gedaliah's assassination (cf. chs. 40-41). This chapter forms a fitting conclusion to the book since it records the fulfil...
  • This is one of four accounts of the fall of Jerusalem in the Old Testament (cf. 2 Kings 25; 2 Chron. 36:11-21; Jer. 39:1-14). The repetition underlines the importance of the event.52:1 Zedekiah (Mattaniah, 2 Kings 24:17) was ...
  • Aharoni, Yohanan, and Michael Avi-Yonah. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Revised ed. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers; and New York: Macmillan Publishers Co., 1977.Albright, William Foxwell. The Archaeology of Palestine. Revis...
  • 5:1 Jeremiah called on Yahweh to remember the calamity that had befallen His people and to consider the reproach in which they now lived (cf. 3:34-36). The humbled condition of the Judahites reflected poorly on the Lord becau...
  • Ezekiel was also to do something else during the time he was dramatizing the siege of Jerusalem with his model (ch. 4)."After Ezekiel represented the factof the siege (first sign [4:1-3]), the lengthof the siege (second sign ...
  • 33:23-24 The Lord informed the prophet about the attitude of the Jews still in the land. The few Jews who still lived in the waste places of the Promised Land were claiming that since God had promised that land to Abraham the...
  • This is the first of four messages that Zechariah received from the Lord that bear on the question just raised. That there were four separate messages seems clear since each one begins with the same preamble: "The word of the...
  • 13:1 In that day God would open a fountain for the complete spiritual cleansing of the Israelites, both for their moral sins and for their ritual uncleanness (cf. Ezek. 47). The figure of a fountain pictures abundant cleansin...
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