Jeremiah 41

41:1-2 in midautumn: These events took place three months after the fall of Jerusalem. • While they were eating together: With this attack, Ishmael viciously violated Gedaliah’s hospitality.

41:4-5 The murderers kept their deed secret until the next day, when men from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria to the north arrived on their way south to the ruins of Jerusalem. Their appearance and the offerings they carried indicated that they were on their way to plead for mercy from the Lord (Lev 2:1; 14:2-9). The annual Festival of Shelters was held at this time of year at the Temple (Lev 23:33-36), and the eighty worshipers were probably unarmed.

41:8 The surviving ten men had quick wits and saved their lives by promising to provide what Ishmael’s men needed most: wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey.

41:9 dug by King Asa when he fortified Mizpah: See 2 Chr 16:1-6. That passage does not refer to cisterns, but the need for water and grain storage would have required such structures, and several cisterns have been found in the ruins of the city.

41:10 Some of the king’s daughters somehow escaped being killed or taken into exile.

41:11-12 Johanan and his companions learned of Gedaliah’s death in time to attack Ishmael’s party at the pool near Gibeon, which was only a few miles south of Mizpah.

41:16 Johanan had with him a variety of important people, including soldiers, women, children, and court officials.

41:17-18 The group led by Johanan headed south, past the ruins of Jerusalem to Geruth-kimham, a small village near Bethlehem. During this trip, the leaders decided that they would be safe from Babylonian reprisals if they fled to Egypt. The Babylonians were cruel, and no one trusted them to seek out the true culprit in Gedaliah’s death.