John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 41:1-3

"Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal and [one of] the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah. Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, [to wit], with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, the men of war." — Jeremiah 41:1-3 (ASV)

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.