Murder at Mizpah
1 Now in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. 2 Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah arose, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. 3 Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldean men of war who were found there. 4 The second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it, 5 men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to Yahweh’s house. 6 Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went, and as he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” 7 It was so, when they came into the middle of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them, and cast them into the middle of the pit, he, and the men who were with him. 8 But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he stopped, and didn’t kill them among their brothers. 9 Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (this was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed. 10 Then Ishmael carried away captive all of the people who were left in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon. 11 But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, 12 then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. 13 Now when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad. 14 So all the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the children of Ammon. 16 Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam—the men of war, with the women, the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. 17 They departed and lived in Geruth Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt 18 because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.
The governor is murdered at his own table by a man of royal blood, and the survivors' fear of the consequences drives them toward Egypt.
The details of the killing are chosen to make it as bad as it can be. Ishmael comes with ten men; he is of the royal offspring, so this is a claimant of David's line acting for a foreign king; and they eat bread together at Mizpah before he draws the sword. Hospitality in that culture was a bond, and the meal is mentioned because it makes the act a betrayal rather than a battle. He kills the governor, the men with him, and the Babylonian soldiers stationed there, which guarantees a reprisal.
What happens on the second day is worse and is harder to read. Eighty men come down from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria — northerners, from the territory of the kingdom destroyed a century before — with beards shaved and clothes torn, carrying grain offerings and frankincense to the house of Yahweh. They are pilgrims coming to a temple that no longer exists, bringing offerings to a burned site because nobody had told them. Ishmael goes out to meet them weeping all along as he went, invites them in, and kills seventy of them in the middle of the city. The ten who survive buy their lives with hidden stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey.
The pit he throws them into is identified, and the identification carries the chapter's bleakest irony: it was the cistern King Asa had dug when he fortified Mizpah against an earlier Israelite king. A defensive work built three centuries before against a threat from the north is filled with the bodies of northerners who had come south to worship. Then Ishmael takes the whole remaining population captive, the king's daughters among them, and sets off for Ammon.
Johanan catches him at the great waters of Gibeon and the captives simply change sides — when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan... then they were glad — and walk back. Ishmael escapes with eight men. But the rescue solves nothing, because the survivors now have a Babylonian garrison's murder on their record. They stop at a place near Bethlehem, and the reason the text gives for their next move is fear rather than policy: they were afraid of them, because Ishmael... had killed Gedaliah. Everything that follows in the book comes out of that fear.
settled What this mark means