Jeremiah 41

₁Ishmael came from the family of the kings_of_Judah and he was one of their important_officials. He and 10 men came to Gedaliah in the town of Mizpah in the 7th month. One day when they were eating together in Mizpah, ₂Ishmael and the 10 men with him got up and they stabbed Gedaliah with swords and killed him. Gedaliah was the governor, and the king of Babylon had chosen him to rule over the land. ₃Ishmael also killed all the Jewish people who were with Gedaliah and all the Babylonian soldiers who were there. _4-5The next day there were men who came to Mizpah from the towns of Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria. There were 80 men. No one outside the town knew that Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah. The 80 men had shaved their beards and torn their clothes and cut themselves. They had grain-offerings and incense with them that they wanted to take to the temple of the Lord. ₆Ishmael went from Mizpah to meet them outside the town. When he came to them, he cried and said to them: ‘Come with me to Gedaliah.’

₇But when they came into the town, Ishmael and the men with him started to kill them and they threw the bodies of the men into a big hole. ₈Then 10 of the men said to Ishmael: ‘Please don't kill us. We have hidden a lot of wheat, barley, olive oil and honey in the field.’

Then Ishmael did not kill those 10 men with the other men. ₉Ishmael threw all the bodies of the dead men into a hole. It was the big water hole that King Asa had told the people to dig when Baasha, king_of_Israel, came to make war_against him. Ishmael filled the hole with dead bodies.

₁₀Ishmael caught all the people in Mizpah and made them prisoners, together with the princesses and all the other people who were left over in Mizpah.

Nebuzaradan, the chief_officer of the Babylonians, had chosen Gedaliah to rule over these people, but Ishmael caught them and then he took them from Mizpah. He wanted to take them to the land of Ammon. ₁₁The people told Johanan and his officers with him about the bad things that Ishmael had done ₁₂and they took all their men to go to war_against Ishmael. They found Ishmael at the big dam near Gibeon. ₁₃When all the people who were prisoners of Ishmael saw Johanan and the officers with him, they were very happy. ₁₄All the prisoners of Ishmael who had been taken from Mizpah went to Johanan. ₁₅Ishmael and 8 of his men fled and they escaped from Johanan and went to the Ammonites.

₁₆So Johanan and his officers saved all the people who were prisoners at Gibeon and freed them, all the soldiers, women and children and servants that Ishmael had caught after he had killed Gedaliah. ₁₇They went to live on land that belonged to Kimham for a short while. It was near Bethlehem. They wanted to go to Egypt ₁₈because they were afraid of the Babylonian soldiers after Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah, who had been the governor of Judah because the king of Babylon had chosen him to rule the land.