Jeremiah 41:1-18
41 And at the seventh new moon Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishamaʽ, of the royal blood, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mispah, and they ate a meal together there at Mispah;
2 and Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah and the ten men he had with him stood up and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan dead with their swords, the one the king of Babylon had put in charge of the country;
3 and all the Jews he had with him at Mispah, and all the Chaldeans there were there, Ishmaʽel killed.
4 And on the second day from the killing of Gedaliah, when nobody had found it out,
5 some men came from Shekem, Shilo, and Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved and their clothes torn and their skins hacked and with grain-offering and frankincense in their hands to bring to Jehovah’s house;
6 * and Ishmaʽel went out to meet them. They were coming along weeping, and he said to them “Come in to Gedaliah”;
7 and when they came inside the city Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah cut their throats and let the blood go inside the cistern,
8 he and the ten men he had with him. But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah “Do not kill us, because we have caches in the countryside, wheat and barley and oil and honey”; and he refrained from killing them among their brothers.
9 And the cistern into which Ishmaʽel threw all the corpses of the men he had killed was a great cistern that King Asa had made in his preparations against King Baʽasha of Israel; Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah filled it up with victims.
10 * And Ishmaʽel carried off by force all the remainder of the people at Mispah and the king’s daughters, whom Chief Guardsman Nebuzaradan had installed with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, and started to go across to the Bene-ʽAmmon.
11 And Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains who were with him heard of all the bad work Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah had done,
12 and they took all the men and went to attack Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah; and they found him at Much-Water in Gibeon.
13 And when all the people Ishmaʽel had with him saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains who were with him they were glad,
14 and all the people Ishmaʽel had carried off from Mispah swung round and turned back and went to Johanan the son of Kareah;
15 and Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah got away from Johanan with eight men and went to the Bene-ʽAmmon.
16 * And Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains who were with him took all the remnant of the people that he had taken back from Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah, whom Ishma’el the son of Nethaniah had carried off from Mispah after he killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, men (the fighting men) and women and children and eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon,
17 ** and they went and took up quarters in Kimham’s Settlement alongside Bethlehem to go off and get to Egypt
18 for fear of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them because Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had put in charge of the country.
Footnotes
^ 41:6 Var. to meet them, weeping as he came; and when he met with them he said
^ 41:10 Var. daughters, and all that remained of the people at Mispah, those whom
^ 41:16 Codd. omit whom Ishmaʽel the son of Nethaniah had carried off Var. omits also down to Ahikam
^ 41:17 Var. Kemoham’s
^ 41:17 Lit. to go off to go into Egypt
