John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 41

It was a detestable cruelty and barbarity for Ishmael to kill Gedaliah, who entertained him and whom he found to have a fatherly regard for him. Pagans have always considered hospitality sacred, and to violate it has been considered by them the greatest atrocity. Hospitable Jupiter always possessed among them the right to take vengeance if anyone broke an oath given at the table.

Now Ishmael had sworn, as we have seen, that he would be faithful to Gedaliah. He was again received by him and was treated hospitably. From his table he rose up to slay the innocent man, who was his friend and had acted towards him, as has been stated, like a father.

Therefore, he became not only a parricide but also a traitor to his own country. For he knew that it was inevitable that Nebuchadnezzar would become more and more incensed against that miserable people, whom he had spared. But he took no account of his own faithfulness, nor showed any regard for his own brethren, whom he knew he exposed to slaughter and ruin.

But the cause of this madness is indirectly intimated here; the Prophet says that he was of the royal seed. The royal seed was then, indeed, in the greatest disgrace; the king’s children had been slain; the king himself had been taken away bound to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar had made him blind.

But we see that those who were once in any position of dignity can hardly relinquish the high notions by which they are inflated. So, when those of the royal seed are reduced to extreme poverty and want, they still aim at something royal and never submit to the power of God.

The Prophet, then, points out the fountain of this madness here, as if with his finger, when he says that Ishmael was of the royal seed. For Ishmael thought it was by no means an honor to him that Gedaliah was set over the Jews. He, no doubt, imagined that the kingdom was to be perpetual, since God had so often promised that the throne of David would stand as long as the moon continued in the heavens (Psalms 89:37). But mere ambition and pride led him to commit this abominable murder, and so he allowed himself to be persuaded by the king of Ammon.

He then came together with the princes of the king, even those who were in the first rank when Zedekiah reigned. Then the Prophet adds that they did eat bread. This phrase intimates that they were received hospitably and were admitted to the table of Gedaliah. And this kindness and benevolence ought to have induced Ishmael and his associates to spare their host.

But it follows that they rose up. This circumstance, regarding the time, enhanced their crime, for it was while they were eating that Ishmael slew Gedaliah. Thus, he polluted his hands with innocent blood at the sacred table, having paid no regard to the rights of hospitality.

Now the Prophet shows that this was fatal to the miserable remnant who were permitted to dwell in the land.

For, first, this act could not have been done without exciting the highest indignation of the king of Babylon, because he had set Gedaliah over the land. And it was not expressed without reason, but emphatically, that this slaughter aroused the displeasure of the king of Babylon, because the murder of Gedaliah was a manifest contempt of his authority.

Then there was another cause of displeasure: the Chaldeans in Mizpah, who had been given as protectors, were killed. For the Prophet tells us that they were men of war, so that no one might think that Chaldeans were sent there to take the place of the Jews, as is sometimes the case when colonists or similar men settle in a land. They were military men who had been chosen as a guard and protection for Gedaliah.

Thus, then, the wrath of the king of Babylon was provoked to vent his rage on the remnant to whom he had shown mercy.

The Prophet shows here that after Ishmael had polluted his hands, he did not cease his barbarity. And thus wicked men become hardened; for even if they dread at first to murder innocent men, once they begin the work, they rush on to the commission of numberless murders. This is what the Prophet now tells us happened; for after Gedaliah was killed, he says that eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, who brought incense and offering to present them in the Temple, and that these were led by treachery to Mizpah, there killed and cast into a pit, as we will see later.

It is not known why Ishmael was induced to commit this cruel and barbarous act, for there was no war declared, nor could he have pretended any excuse for thus slaying unhappy men who suspected no such thing. They were of the seed of Abraham, they were worshippers of God, and they had committed no offense and plotted nothing against him.

Why then he was seized with such rage is uncertain, except that wicked men, as we have said, never set any bounds to their crimes; for God gives them the spirit of giddiness, so that they are carried away by blind madness. It is, indeed, probable that they were killed because Ishmael thought that they came to Gedaliah so that they might live under his protection, and that he could not have gained anything by the murder of one man unless he obtained authority over the whole land.

It was then suspicion alone, and indeed a slight one, which led him to such cruelty. And the atrocity of the deed was enhanced by what the Prophet says: that they came to offer to God incense and offering, מנחה, meneche; and he also says that they had their beards shaven, and their garments torn. Such an appearance should have roused pity even in the most inveterate enemies, for we know that there is an innate feeling which leads us to pity wretchedness and tears, and every mournful appearance.

The fury then of Ishmael, even if he had before determined to do some grievous thing to these men, should have been allayed by their very sight, so as not to be even angry with them. According then to every view of the case, we see that he must have been devoid of all sense of fairness and that he was more cruel than any wild beast.

But it may be asked: How did these men come for the purpose mentioned, since the report respecting the destruction of the Temple must have spread everywhere? For they are not said to have come from Persia or from countries beyond the sea, but from places not far away.

Those who answer that the report of the Temple being destroyed had not reached them only seek to evade the issue, for the answer is not credible and is merely an evasion. The Temple was burned in the fifth month; could that calamity be unknown in Judea? Furthermore, we know that Shiloh was not far from Jerusalem, nor was Samaria very distant.

Since, then, the distance of these places cannot account for their ignorance, it does not seem probable to me that these men came because they thought the Temple was still standing; nor did they bring victims, but only incense and oblation.

Therefore, I think that they came, not to offer the ordinary sacrifice, but only that they might testify to their piety in that place where they had previously offered their sacrifices. This conjecture has nothing inconsistent in it; nor is there any doubt that before they left their homes, they had put on their humble and torn garments. These were signs, as we have seen elsewhere, of sorrow and mourning among Eastern peoples.

But here another question is raised, for the Prophet says that they were torn or cut; and this has been deemed as referring to the skin or body, but this was forbidden by the Law. Some answer that they forgot the Law in their extreme grief, so that they unintentionally tore or lacerated their bodies.

But the prohibition of the Law seems to me to have had something special in it, namely, that God designed by it to distinguish His people from pagans. And we may gather from sacred history that some artifice was practiced by idolaters when they cut their bodies; for it is said that the priests of Baal cut their bodies according to their usual manner or practice.

God then, wishing to keep His people from every corruption, forbade them to imitate the rites of the pagans. Furthermore, there is no doubt that God designed to correct excess in grief and mourning. I therefore do not think that anything contrary to the Law was done by these men when they came to the ruins of the Temple with torn garments and lacerated skin, for there was in them nothing feigned; for so lamentable a calamity elicited such grief that they spared neither themselves nor their garments.

Jeremiah says, in the first of these verses, that the death of Gedaliah was concealed, so that no one knew it; yet such a deed could hardly have been kept secret, for many of the Jews were killed together with Gedaliah, and also the guarding soldiers whom Nebuchadnezzar had given to Gedaliah. But the Prophet means that it was hidden because the report had not yet spread. He then speaks comparatively when he says that it was known to no one. We have already stated the purpose for which the eighty men came from Samaria and other places; it was not that they might offer sacrifices, as when the Temple was standing, but only lament the destruction of the Temple and of the city; and that as they had brought from home the greatest sorrow, they might, on their return, humble themselves, after having seen so grievous a punishment inflicted on the people for their sins.

Prayer:

Grant, omnipotent God, that since our life is exposed to innumerable dangers, and You set before our eyes what happened to the best and choicest of Your servants — O grant, that we may flee to You, and resign ourselves wholly to Your will, that we may know that You are the guardian of our life, so that not a hair of our head can fall without Your hidden permission, and that we may also learn to ask of You the spirit of wisdom and discretion, so that You Yourself may guide our steps, as it is not in us to defend our life from those many intrigues by which we are on every side surrounded, the whole world being opposed to us, so that we may proceed in the course of our pilgrimage under Your care and protection, until we shall be removed into that blessed rest, which is laid up for us in heaven by Christ our Lord. — Amen.

Here Jeremiah relates another circumstance in the nefarious conduct of Ishmael: by flatteries he enticed simple men, who feared no evil, and while pretending kindness, killed them. The slaughter was in itself very detestable, but added to it was the most abominable deceit, for he pretended to weep with them and offered an act of kindness—to bring them to Gedaliah—and then he traitorously killed them!

From this we see that it was an act of extreme wickedness. In saying that he wept, it was no doubt a sign of feigned piety. He saw these good men in torn garments and in tears on account of the Temple being destroyed, and therefore he pretended that he had the same feeling.

This was to falsely pretend a regard for God, and his tears were those of the crocodile, for he shed tears as though he lamented the ruin of the Temple and of the city. He thus gained the confidence of the unwary men, and then after leading them into the middle of the city, he killed them.

The place also is mentioned—near the middle of the pit (for so I render it, rather than in the middle)—as it is not credible that he killed them in the pit itself. Instead, when they were led to the pit, they were killed and then cast into it, as we shall see. He then killed them outside the pit and immediately cast them in.

However, it may be asked whether he could, with so few men, successfully attack so many. For it seems strange that, as they were eighty men, they did not resist; they might at least have frightened their enemies.

But we must, first, remember that they were, as we have seen, unarmed, for they had brought only a sacred offering with incense. Ishmael’s men, on the other hand, were armed and well trained for war. They had also been reduced to a state of hopeless despair, so that they had undoubtedly developed great ferocity, as those who are continually in danger accustom themselves to acts of cruelty. So, Ishmael and his companions were armed, but the others were without any arms, and were also simple men, not at all accustomed to war. This is why they were killed like sheep, while Ishmael and his associates were like wolves, altogether ferocious.

Here we see that the barbarity of Ishmael was connected with avarice; he was indeed inflamed with ferocious madness when he killed simple and innocent men, but when the hope of gain was presented to him, he spared some of them. Thus we see that he was a lion, a wolf, or a bear in savagery, but that he was also a hungry man, for as soon as he smelled the scent of prey, he spared ten out of the eighty, who, it is probable, thus redeemed their lives and returned home. So in one man we see there were many monsters; for if he hated all those who favored Gedaliah, why did he allow these to escape? Simply because avarice and rapacity prevailed in him.

It is then added that he slew them not in the midst of their brethren, that is, when they were exposed to death and were mixed with the others, so that their condition seems to have been the same. The Prophet says that they were spared, simply because Ishmael sought nothing else but gain. And it is probable that in such a disturbed state of affairs, he was not supplied with provisions and other things. As need urged him, then, he became moderate, lest his cruelty should cause him loss.

Here also the inscrutable purpose of God is set before us, that He allowed unhappy men to be killed in this way by robbers. They had left their houses to lament the burning of the Temple. Since, then, the ardor of their piety led them to Jerusalem, how unworthy it was that they should become a prey to the barbarity of Ishmael and his associates?

But as we said yesterday, God has hidden ways by which He provides for the salvation of His people. He took away Gedaliah; his end was indeed sad, having been killed by Ishmael whom he had hospitably entertained. Thus God did not allow him to be tossed about in the midst of great troubles.

For John, the son of Kareah, who was nevertheless a most faithful man, would soon have become troublesome to the holy man; for soon after, he became the head and ringleader of an impious faction and ferociously opposed Jeremiah. Then, had Gedaliah lived, he would have been assailed on every side by his own people.

It was God’s purpose, then, to free him at once from all these miserable troubles. The same thing also happened to the seventy who were killed; for the Lord removed them to their rest, that they might not be exposed to the grievous evils and calamities which soon followed afterward. For none could have been in a more miserable state than the remnant whom Nebuchadnezzar had spared. We have reason then, in this instance, to admire the secret purpose of God when we see that these unhappy men were killed, who had nevertheless gone to Jerusalem for the sake of testifying their piety. In short, it was better for them to have been removed than to have to endure many miseries again.

The Prophet tells us incidentally that the trench was made by King Asa when he fortified the city against Baasha's attack, as related in 2 Chronicles 16. For Baasha, having collected an army, had attacked the land of Judah and begun to build a city. His intention was to thereby keep the Jews effectively besieged, make daily incursions from there, and have a place where he could safely gather his forces along with the spoils.

Asa then hired the king of Syria and induced him to break the treaty that the kings of Syria and Israel had made with each other. Consequently, Baasha was forced to leave the work unfinished. Asa is then said to have carried away the gathered stones, so that the trench might be formed from them.

Indeed, there is no explicit mention of the trench in that account; however, we may conclude that it was formed at that time to be positioned between the enemy and the city. It might seem strange, though, that the trench was in the middle of the city.

One possible explanation is that Asa built a fortress within the town. This would mean that if he were overcome by his enemy, he could take refuge there with his soldiers, as we know that citadels are often built in the middle of cities as fortresses and places of refuge. Asa, therefore, built this trench so that if the king of Israel took the city, he would not penetrate further but be kept back by the intervening trench. However, conjectures are permissible only in uncertain matters.

But the Prophet magnifies the outrage of the deed when he says that the trench was filled with the slain. It had been formed for a very different purpose: namely, that the king of Judah, when reduced to the direst circumstances, could use the trench as a defense against the violence of his enemies, so that he might protect his kingdom and his subjects.

But now the slain were cast into the trench—not Syrians or Israelites, but Jews themselves and God’s pious worshipers. Thus, what had been made for the public benefit of the people was turned by Ishmael into a place for the slaughter of good men. Therefore, as has been stated, the atrocity of the deed was further intensified.