Chapter 41

Ishmael murders Gedeliah.  The way it is written, Ishmael is also from Judah.  There was an earlier reference to him I believe in an MSB note saying he was of royal blood, and might have killed Gedeliah so that he himself could be king.  That was in 2 Kings I think.  Gedeliah had refused to believe these rumors about Ishmael.  In this chapter, Ishmael has been invited in, and is having a meal with Gedeliah in Mizpah.  Gedeliah, it seems, is very foolish.  It is hard to feel sorry for him.  Ishmael murders many others also.  Though he only has 10 men with him, he kills all the men of Judah that are with Gedeliah in Mizpah, and he kills the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there.  With only 10 men he does this.  80 men show up with their beards shaved and their clothes torn.  MSB says they had likely been mourning the fall of Jerusalem "and so were led to slaughter".   Not sure I really see how this follows...

Ishmael goes out all teary-eyed to meet them, and invites them in to meet with Gedeliah.  Once inside the gates, Ishmael starts killing them and throws the bodies in a cistern.  Mass murder.  10 of the 80 save themselves by claiming to have food and such stored away in the fields where it can't be found.  So Ishmael lets these live.  He takes the rest of the city captive (surely more men allied with him had arrived, or he had recruited some locals to his side in order to pull all this off.  If 10 did all this, it is like Jeff Cooper says.  These people were so unused to confronting violence that they practically assisted with their own murders...In any case, Ishmael sets out with these captives in tow, headed to Ammon to "cross over to the Ammonites".  He apparently intends to abandon Judah and offer these captives as slaves?  So he seems to have given up the idea of becoming King in Gedeliah's place...if that was ever his plan.  We really don't know.

Johanan and his men catch up with Ishmael, and recover the captives but Ishmael escapes to Ammon.  Actually it says the captives "turned back" when they saw Johanan.  So maybe 10 were not enough men to hold them, and they just walked away from Ishmael.  Which again makes it hard to believe so many of the others had just allowed themselves to be killed.  It says that Ishmael and 8 men escaped and went on to Ammon.  So perhaps the captives got brave, killed two guards and escaped.  I think Jeff Cooper is right about this situation.  At any rate, Ishmael's captives get free of him. 

Then Johanan and the former captives plan to flee to Egypt, fearing what Neb will do when he learns his appointed one has been murdered.  Even though they didn't actually do it.  They were very much afraid of Nebuchadnezzar by this point.  This is understandable seeing what Nebuchadnezzar did to the captured officials of Jerusalem, to King Zedekiah, and throughout the land.  The Chaldeans were not a merciful people at all, and had struck fear in the survivors of Judah.