Of Gedaliah, the governor of the few Israelites left in the country, we know nothing more than the statements about him in 2 Kings 25:22-2522And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler. 23And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. 24And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you. 25But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah. (2 Kings 25:22‑25) and Jer. 39, 40 and 41. From Jer. 20:24, we know that his father stood on the side of the prophet when there was talk of putting him to death; the father is also mentioned in 2 King’s 22:12 when the lost book of God was found.
The unsuspecting. Gedaliah was not long (two to three months) in Mizpah, when there came to visit him the man concerning whom he had been warned (chapter 40), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, together with ten men, and after eating bread with Gedaliah they killed him. Forthwith, they slew every other person that was with Gedaliah, so that none would be left to spread the tale of the murder.
This shocking, premeditated crime was almost of necessity followed by another, when 80 men arrived on the second day after with oblations and incense to bring to the house of Jehovah. Although we cannot trace anything approved of God in their having cut themselves (see Lev. 21:55They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. (Leviticus 21:5) and Deut. 14:11Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. (Deuteronomy 14:1) which compare with Isa. 15:22He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off. (Isaiah 15:2) and Jer. 48:3737For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. (Jeremiah 48:37) referring to the practices of the Moabites), the newcomers seem to have been moved by genuine feeling of grief over that which had befallen Judah. There was no “house of Jehovah” since the destruction of the temple, and the priests were all gone into captivity, yet the fear of God seems to have actuated the men from Shechem, Shiloh and Saria.
The chief murderer went out to meet these men, hypocritically weeping all along as he went, as though moved by grief over the destruction of Jerusalem, and invited them to come to Gedaliah, but only to slay them when they got into the town. Ten of the eighty were spared because they said they had hidden stores of food. How little could king Asa (godly in the early part of his reign,—2 Chron. 14 and 15) have anticipated the use which Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah would make of the pit (or cistern) he had made at Mizpah!
Ishmael, his bloody work done, now proposed to return to the safe haven of the children of Ammon, and took with him all that remained alive in Mizpah. Of Jeremiah at this time, we are not told; had not God undertaken his defense, we might wonder why he, too, was not killed, whether at Mizpah or somewhere else. If there had been a real regard for the governor, would Johanan, the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him have left Gedaliah exposed to the danger of assassination? Since he had taken service under the king of Babylon to whom they had not submitted themselves, they are not likely to have esteemed him highly. Natural feeling, hover, over the crime that had been committed, sent these men with Johanan, after the murderer, and they caught up with him at the great waters in Gibeon.
Ishmael escaped with eight men into the land of Ammon, and those he was carrying off returned with Johanan and his men, but fear of the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar led the party’s steps southward to go into Egypt. There they hoped to be safe from the forces of the king of Babylon. Our chapter closes with them near Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem on the highway to Hebron.
In all this chapter contains, we see only fresh evidence that the children of Israel were drinking the bitter cup they had filled for themselves. They had given up God (save in an empty profession which was an insult to Himself) and ran greedily after the pleasures of the heathen world, adopting their idols and their idolatrous practices as their own. God had given up the nation to judgment as He had long foretold through His prophets, and they were now suffering in Babylon or in the land of their forefathers because of their sins.
ML-04/07/1935