Глава 41

1–10. The killing of Gedaliah and new murders. 11–13. The flight of Ishmael and the intention of the Jews to retire to Egypt. Jeremiah 41:1–10. Ishmael treacherously killed Gedaliah, and with him some of the Jewish and Chaldean soldiers who were at Gedaliah, and then killed seventy pilgrims from Samaria. At the same time, he captured into his hands everyone who remained in Mizpah. Jer.41:1. And it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elisham, of the king's tribe, and the king's officials and ten men with him came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. “In the seventh month” - therefore, only 8 months after the occupation of the city, two months after its destruction and the appointment of Gedaliah as governor. Elisam is probably the son of David (2 Samuel 5.16; 1 Chronicles 3:6, 14:7). Ishmael is called his son in the general sense of "descendant." Jer.41:5. Eighty men came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, with shaved beards and torn clothes, and having wounded themselves, with gifts and frankincense in their hands to bring them to the house of the Lord. In the seventh month, according to the law, the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated, but the Jews from Samaria went to this holiday to the destroyed church not in festive clothes, but in full mourning (cf. Jer 16.6 and Jer 36.24). - Gifts are grain offerings, Lebanon - incense, which may be burned at a sacred place, while there was no longer an altar for blood sacrifices. Jer.41:6. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah came out of Mizpah to meet them, walking and weeping, and when he met them, he said to them, Go to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. Ishmael deceived the pilgrims with his crying, as if expressing sympathy for their repentant mood in order to gain their trust (in LXX the pilgrims themselves are the mourners). He invited them to Gedaliah, apparently promising them a good meeting here. Jer.41:7. And as soon as they entered the middle of the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them and threw them into the ditch, he and the people who were with him. "Ditch" was an artificial reservoir. Jer.41:8. But there were ten men among them who said to Ismail: Do not kill us, for we have hidden storehouses in the field with wheat and barley, and oil and honey. And he restrained himself and did not kill them with their other brothers. “Hidden storerooms” are underground cellars in the fields where grain supplies were hidden. They might not be far from Mizpah. Jer.41:9. The ditch where Ishmael threw all the corpses of the people whom he killed because of Gedaliah was the same one that King Asa made, fearing Baasha the king of Israel; it was filled with Ishmael son of Nethaniah with the slain. The heinousness of Ishmael’s act lies in the fact that he made the mentioned reservoir unclean, filling it with corpses. – “Because of Gedaliah” – LXX was read more correctly here: instead of Godoliah – gadol – great. It should be translated as follows: “The ditch where Ishmael threw the slain was a great ditch, which,” etc. Jeremiah 41:11–18. When Johanan, one of the military leaders, gathered a sufficient number of Jews around him to fight the villain Ishmael, the latter fled to the Ammonite king. The remaining Jews, out of fear of the Chaldeans, decided to all go to Egypt, where they hoped to remain safe. Jer.41:12. They took all the people and went to fight with Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and overtook him at the great waters in Gibeon. "In Gibeon" (today's El-Jib) there is still a large reservoir, which in former times received water from a nearby source (great waters). Ishmael turned here, heading beyond the Jordan. Jeremiah 41:17. and they went and stopped in the village of Himam, near Bethlehem, to go to Egypt "Himam" is an unknown place. The name Kimgam (according to the Hebrew text) is found, however, in 2 Samuel 19.38 et seq. Here the son of Barzillai, faithful to David, is named so, who could have been awarded a special plot near Bethlehem. Here the Jews stopped to gather supplies for the journey to Egypt. Jer.41:18. from 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 had made ruler over the country. The leaders who remained after Gedaliah were especially afraid of the Chaldeans, because the murderer of Gedaliah, Ishmael, belonged to their society and the Chaldeans could recognize his crime as committed by a secret agreement of all the Jewish leaders. You might be interested in: