Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Ishmael treacherously kills Gedaliah and the Jews and Chaldeans loyal to him, and leads the remaining people away captive; Johanan pursues him (verse 11), puts him to flight, and liberates the people, with whom — fearing that the Chaldeans will avenge the murder of Gedaliah — he contemplates flight into Egypt.
Vulgate Text: Jeremiah 41:1-17
1. And it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, and the nobles of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah: and they ate bread there together in Mizpah. 2. Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah rose up, and the ten men who were with him, and they struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had set over the land. 3. Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, and the men of war. 4. On the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, no one yet knowing it, 5. there came men from Shechem and from Shiloh and from Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved and their clothes torn and their bodies gashed: and they had offerings and incense in their hands to present in the house of the Lord. 6. So Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, walking and weeping as he went: and when he met them, he said to them: Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. 7. And when they had come to the middle of the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them and cast them into the midst of the pit, he and the men who were with him. 8. But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael: Do not kill us, for we have stores in the field — of grain and barley and oil and honey. So he relented and did not kill them with their brethren. 9. Now the pit into which Ishmael had cast all the bodies of the men whom he had slain on account of Gedaliah was the one that King Asa had made on account of Baasha king of Israel: Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain. 10. Then Ishmael led away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah — the king's daughters and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nabuzardan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them and set out to cross over to the sons of Ammon. 11. But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the warriors who were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, 12. they took all their men and went to fight against Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. 13. And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the warriors who were with him, they rejoiced. 14. And all the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned 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 sons of Ammon. 16. Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the warriors who were with him took all the rest of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah at Mizpah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam — the warriors, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. 17. And they departed and stayed at the lodging place of Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, intending to go on and enter Egypt, 18. because of the Chaldeans: for they feared them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land of Judah.
Verse 1
1. And ten men. — 'And' here means 'namely.' A similar usage was found in the preceding chapter, verse 8. These ten men were fighters and daring men — in Italian called 'bravi' — who accompanied Ishmael for the murder of Gedaliah and the others, together with the nobles and their servants. For ten men alone could not have killed so many and such great warriors. So Lyranus, Abulensis, and Sanchez; although Maldonatus and St. Thomas think it was done by the ten alone.
Verse 2
2. Whom the king had set over. — Vatablus renders: because he had set him over. This, then, was the cause of the murder: that Ishmael, being of the royal seed, envied Gedaliah's leadership, as though it were owed to him. On account of Gedaliah's murder, the Jews appointed a standing fast in the seventh month, which Zechariah mentions in chapter VIII, 19, as the Hebrew calendars attest.
Morally, see here how true is that saying of Seneca in the Thebaid:
The Creator of the world established these things together, O God: hatred and kingship.
Thus the desire for kingship caused Ishmael to hate and kill Gedaliah. And this also from the same author's Agamemnon:
Neither kingdoms nor marriages know how to brook a partner.
Josephus writes, Antiquities X, chapter XI, that Gedaliah was killed by Ishmael at the very banquet to which Ishmael had invited him, when he and his guests were already heavy with wine. And he adds: "Having killed them, taking advantage of the nighttime, they rampaged through the whole town with indiscriminate slaughter, killing both Jews and the Babylonian soldiers who were off guard and sleeping all about."
Furthermore, see here in Ishmael how cruel, blind, and headlong is the lust for power. For he exposed himself and the entire people to slaughter by the Chaldeans.
Truly St. Bernard on Psalm XC, sermon 6, says: "Ambition is a subtle evil, a secret poison, a hidden plague, a craftsman of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the origin of vices, the kindling of crimes, the rust of virtues, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, creating diseases from remedies, generating sickness from medicine."
Verse 4
4. No one yet knowing it. — He adds this to give the reason why the Shechemites dared to come after Gedaliah's murder: namely because they came on the day after the slaughter carried out by night, and therefore before the news had yet spread through the neighboring places.
Verse 5
5. Gashed — מתנודדים mitgodedim, that is, cut, lacerated, or lacerating themselves with their nails on their faces and hands. The Septuagint translates 'mourning'; for in mourning they tore their garments and bodies, and shaved their beards and hair. These eighty men were mourning the destruction of the city and the temple.
In the house of the Lord. — For although they had heard that the city was burned when they set out from home, they had not yet heard that the temple had been burned, but learned of it on the way: hence, mourning, they shaved themselves. So Vatablus and Rabbi Solomon. But since the temple was burned in the fifth month and these men came in the seventh month from a nearby place, namely from Shechem, I do not see how they could not have heard of so famous an event.
Christopher de Castro and Sanchez therefore respond: Although they had heard that the temple was burned, they still wished to offer their gifts at the same place of the temple that God had chosen. Add that they did not know the temple had been so completely burned that the walls, altar, and other parts had not survived intact; or if they knew everything had been burned, they believed the altar had been restored or could be restored by them.
Maldonatus responds differently, namely that these eighty men had not come to Jerusalem but to Mizpah, where they had heard that the remnant of the Jews had been gathered under Gedaliah, and that an altar had been erected there to the Lord, as is gathered to have been done in ancient times, 1 Samuel chapter VII, verses 5 and 6.
But the former opinion is more probable, both because the house of the Lord properly refers to the temple established in Jerusalem by the Lord's command; and because these men were coming to mourn the destruction of the holy city and temple, lying as if in its own grave. For they were drawn there by compassion for it, by the ancient holiness of the place, and by the novelty of so great a catastrophe, which they desired to see and behold with their own eyes. Thus after the destruction by Titus, the Jews used to come to Jerusalem every year to mourn the destruction of the city and temple on the very anniversary of its fall. Hear St. Jerome on chapter 1 of Zephaniah: "A crowd of wretched people gathers (that is, Jews, as was said before), and while the gibbet of the Lord gleams and His resurrection shines, and the banner of the cross blazes from the Mount of Olives, you may see the wretched people mourning the ruins of their temple, yet not worthy of pity. Still the tears on their cheeks, and their bruised arms, and their disheveled hair — and the soldier demands payment that they may be allowed to weep longer."
Verse 6
6. Weeping — pretending to weep over the same disaster of the city and temple, so as to deceive them with a feigned appearance of piety.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Moralia I, chapter XXXVIII: "Ishmael weeping," he says, "represents Satan, who, in order to prevail in striking down devout souls, hides himself as it were under the cloak of virtue: and while he pretends to share the grief of those who truly mourn, having been more securely admitted to the innermost recesses of the heart, he kills whatever virtue lies hidden within. He usually promises to lead to higher things, whence he is reported to have said: Come to Gedaliah; and while he promises greater things, he takes away even the least. Whence it is rightly said: When they had come to the middle of the city, he killed them. He therefore killed men coming to offer gifts to God in the middle of the city; because minds devoted to divine works, unless they guard themselves with great circumspection, lose their life on the very journey while carrying the offering of devotion, the enemy stealing upon them."
Come to Gedaliah — to whom I strongly suspect you also were heading, in order to acknowledge him as leader of Israel and therefore offer him gifts. Ishmael said this to test them, to see whether what he suspected about them was true. And when, by their assent and their continuing on to Gedaliah, he found it to be true, he killed them, because he saw them conspiring with Gedaliah, whose appointment over him he resented and envied, as is evident from verse 9.
Verse 8
8. We have stores — namely of grain, oil, and honey in the field, which we will give you if you do not kill us.
Tropologically, St. Gregory says above: "The treasure in the field is hope in repentance, which, because it is not seen, is as it were buried in the soil of the heart: those therefore who had treasures in the field were saved, because those who, after the fault of their carelessness, return to the laments of repentance, are not taken and slain."
Verse 9
9. On account of Gedaliah. — In Hebrew: 'by the hand of Gedaliah,' that is, in the striking and slaughter of Gedaliah. Similarly in Exodus IX, 3, it says: 'Behold, my hand (that is, my plague) shall be upon the fields.' Or 'by the hand,' that is, those whom Gedaliah had at hand. Our translator best renders the sense, saying: 'On account of Gedaliah.' For Ishmael killed not only Gedaliah but also all his supporters.
On account of Baasha. — That is, against the raids of Baasha and the Israelites, Asa took the stones and timber with which Baasha was fortifying himself at Ramah, and with them fortified Geba and Mizpah, and made here a pit or well or cistern, so that the inhabitants might have water and thus be able to withstand a siege by Baasha and others. So Rabanus, Hugo, St. Thomas, Lyranus. See 3 Kings XV, 17.
Verse 10
10. The king's daughters — either of Jehoiakim, or Jehoiachin, or more likely of Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, as they were small children, left with the common people and committed to Gedaliah; for he feared nothing from them.
Verse 12
12. By the great waters. — The Chaldean renders: by the pool or reservoir of Gibeon, concerning which see 2 Samuel II, 13.
Verse 16
16. From Mizpah — that is, those whom Ishmael had led away captive from Mizpah; these, after putting Ishmael to flight from Gibeon, he brought back to Chimham.
Verse 17
17. At Chimham. — In Hebrew: At the lodging place of Chimham, that is, at the place which David had given to Chimham the son of Barzillai, because he had followed David when he fled from Absalom, 2 Samuel chapter XIX, 37. So the Chaldean, Vatablus, and Pagninus. This place was near Bethlehem, as is stated here. Hence also St. Jerome in his Hebrew Places locates Chimham as a village near Bethlehem.
Verse 18
18. Because Ishmael had struck. — For they feared the Chaldeans, lest, since they were fugitives, they might be implicated along with Ishmael in the same cause and in the murder of Gedaliah. They therefore withdrew to Chimham, so that from there they might flee into nearby Egypt, should the Chaldeans come to avenge Gedaliah's murder.