Now it happened on the [a]next day after the killing of Gedaliah, when no one knew about it, that eighty men (A)came from (B)Shechem, from (C)Shiloh, and from (D)Samaria with (E)their beards shaved off, their clothes torn, and [b]their bodies (F)gashed, having grain offerings and incense in their hands to bring to the (G)house of the Lord. Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah left Mizpah to meet them, (H)weeping as he went; and as he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!” Yet it turned out that as soon as they came inside the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him (I)slaughtered them and threw them into the cistern. But ten men who were found among them said to Ishmael, “Do not put us to death, for we have (J)supplies of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the field.” So he refrained and did not put them to death along with their companions.

Now as for the cistern where Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men whom he had struck and killed [c]because of Gedaliah, it was the (K)one that King Asa had constructed on (L)account of Baasha, king of Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the dead.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 41:4 Or second
  2. Jeremiah 41:5 Lit having cut themselves
  3. Jeremiah 41:9 Lit by the hand of

The next day, before anyone had heard about Gedaliah’s murder, eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria to worship at the Temple of the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, and had brought along grain offerings and frankincense. Ishmael left Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he reached them, he said, “Oh, come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!”

But as soon as they were all inside the town, Ishmael and his men killed all but ten of them and threw their bodies into a cistern. The other ten had talked Ishmael into letting them go by promising to bring him their stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey that they had hidden away. The cistern where Ishmael dumped the bodies of the men he murdered was the large one[a] dug by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah to protect himself against King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with corpses.

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Footnotes

  1. 41:9 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads murdered because of Gedaliah was one.