Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 41:8
But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not: for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbear, and slew them not among their brethren.
8. we have stores hidden ] In the East it is to this day a common custom to use “wells or cisterns for grain. In them the farmers store their crops of all kinds after the grain is threshed and winnowed. These cisterns are cool, perfectly dry, and tight. The top is hermetically sealed with plaster, and covered with a deep bed of earth.” See Thomson, The Land and the Book, pp. 509 f.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Treasures – Hidden stores; which would be of great value to Ishmael in his retreat back to Baalis.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 41:8
So he forbare, and slew them not among their, brethren.
Sin hindered by sin
Ishmael would have killed these men but for his greed of the wealth they had. It is satisfactory to think he never gained possession of it. Nevertheless, his greed made him guilty of one sin less. This story suggests that–
I. God has many ways of hindering sin. There is–
1. The best way of all. By granting a true repentance and His Holy Spirit, creating the clean heart and renewing the right spirit.
2. But there are other ways. By keeping the opportunity and the will apart. How much of our freedom from sin do we owe to this blessed providential severance! By fear of present evil consequence of our sin.
3. And sometimes, as here, by one sin getting in the way of another. Thus pride holds back not a few; not love of God, gratitude to Christ, love of holiness, hut pride. And covetousness checks the sinner in many sins he would be guilty of but for this. Anger, breaking up the alliances of transgressors; as when, in the days of Jehoshaphat, the Ammonites who were coming against him fell out one with the other (2Ch 20:22). When thieves fall out, honest men come by their rights. (W. Clarkson, B. A.)
Sensual self-indulgence
The vilest Roman emperors were those who least persecuted the Church–Tiberius, Commodus, &c. They were too absorbed in their own indulgences to trouble about the Christians.
II. But these other ways leave men as great sinners as before. The question is not as to your freedom from transgression so much, but–what kept you free? Only the first and best way is accepted of God.
III. Nevertheless, let us be thankful that sin is self-destructive in its very nature. It is a blessed anarchy, for it protects many who would otherwise suffer.
IV. But for ourselves let us seek that sin may be destroyed by Christ. (W. Clarkson, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
He slew seventy of them, but ten of them pleading for their lives, urged that they had estates in the country, both of corn, oil, and honey. His covetousness prevailed over his cruelty, he spared their lives to become master of what they had.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. treasuresIt was customaryto hide grain in cavities underground in troubled times. “Wehave treasures,” which we will give, if our lives be spared.
slew . . . not (Pr13:8). Ishmael’s avarice and needs overcame his cruelty.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But ten men were found among them, that said unto Ishmael, slay us not,…. They begged for their lives, using what follows as an argument to prevail upon him:
for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey; not that they had then a stock upon the ground at this time; for this being the seventh month, not only the barley and wheat harvests had been over long ago, but the rest of the fruits of the earth were gathered in: but this either means storehouses of such things in the field; or else that these things were hid in cells under ground, the land having been invaded, to secure them from the enemy, as is common to do in time of war; and so Josephus says i, they promised to deliver to him things hid in the fields, household goods, clothes, and corn:
so he forbore, and slew them not among their brethren; but saved them, and kept and carried them with him, in order to take these hidden treasures, which lay in his way to Ammon; for between Gibeon, where he was found, Jer 41:12; and Ammon, lay Samaria, Sichem, and Shiloh; at least it was not far out of his way to take that course; and thus he appears to be a covetous man, as well as a cruel one.
i Ibid. (Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 4.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Only ten men out of the eighty saved their lives, and this by saying to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have hidden stores in the field – wheat, and barley, and oil, and honey.” are excavations in the form of cisterns, or subterranean storehouses in the open country, for keeping grain; the openings or entrances to these are so concealed that the eye of a stranger could not perceive them. Such places are still universally employed in Palestine at the present day (Robinson’s Palestine, i. pp. 324-5), and are also to be found in other southern countries, both in ancient and modern times; see proofs of this in Rosenmller’s Scholia ad hunc locum . It is remarked, in Jer 41:9, of the pit into which Ishmael threw the corpses, that it was the same that King Asa had made, i.e., had caused to be made, against, i.e., for protection against, Baasha the king of Israel. In the historical books there is no mention made of this pit in the account of the war between Asa and Baasha, 1Ki 15:16-22 and 2Ch 16:1-6; it is only stated in 1Ki 15:22 and 2Ch 16:6 that, after Baasha, who had fortified Ramah, had been compelled to return to his own land because of the invasion of Benhadad the Syrian king, whom Asa had called to his aid, the king of Judah ordered all his people to carry away from Ramah the stones and timber which Baasha had employed in building, and therewith fortify Geba and Mizpah. The expression certainly implies that the pit had been formed as a protection against Baasha, and belonged to the fortifications raised at that time. However, cannot mean the burial-place belonging to the city (Grotius), but only a cistern (cf. 2Ki 10:14); and one such as could contain a considerable store of water was as necessary as a wall and a moat for the fortification of a city, so that it might be able to endure a long siege (Graf). Hitzig, on the other hand, takes to mean a long and broad ditch which cut off the approach to the city from Ephraim, or which, forming a part of the fortifications, made a break in the road to Jerusalem, though it was bridged over in times of peace, thus forming a kind of tunnel. This idea is certainly incorrect; for, according to Jer 41:7, the “ditch” was inside the city ( ). The expression is obscure, and cannot be explained with any of certainty. cannot mean “through the fault of” Gedaliah (Raschi), or “because of” Gedaliah – for his sake (Kimchi, Umbreit), or “ coram ” Gedaliah (Venema), but must rather be rendered “by means of, through the medium of,” or “at the side of, together with.” Ngelsbach has decided for the rendering “by means of,” giving as his reason the fact that Ishmael had made use of the name of Gedaliah in order to decoy these men into destruction. He had called to them, “Come to Gedaliah” (Jer 41:6); and simply on the authority of this name, they had followed him. But the employment of the name as a means of decoy can hardly be expressed by . We therefore prefer the meaning “at the hand = at the side of” (following the Syriac, L. de Dieu, Rosenmller, Ewald), although this signification cannot be established from the passages cited by Rosenm. (1Sa 14:34; 1Sa 16:2; Ezr 7:23), nor can the meaning “together with” (Ewald) be shown to belong to it. On the other hand, a passage which is quite decisive for the rendering “by the hand of, beside,” is Job 15:23: “there stands ready at his hand ( , i.e., close to him) a day of darkness.” If we take this meaning for the passage now before us, then cannot be connected with , in accordance with the Masoretic accents, but with , “where Ishmael cast the bodies of the men whom he had slain, by the side of Gedaliah;” so that it is not stated till here and now, and only in a casual manner, what had become of Gedaliah’s corpse. Nothing that admits of being proved can be brought against this view.
(Note: Because the lxx have, for , , J. D. Michaelis, Dahler, Movers, Hitzig, and Graf would change the text, and either take ryb lwdg ‘wh (Dahler, Movers) or (= ) as the original reading, inasmuch as one codex of De Rossi’s also has . But apart from the improbability of or being incorrectly changed into , we find that stands provokingly in the way; for it would be superfluous, or introduce an improper emphasis into the sentence. The lxx have but been attempting to guess at a translation of a text they did not understand. What Hitzig further supposes has no foundation, viz., that this “ditch” is identical with that mentioned 1Sa 19:22, in , and with of 1 Macc. 7:19; for the ditch at Sechu was near Ramah, which was about four miles from Mizpah, and the large fountain 1 Macc. 7:19 was , an unknown place in the vicinity of Jerusalem.)
The which follows is a predicate: “the ditch wherein…was that which Asa the king had formed.”
The motive for this second series of assassinations by Ishmael is difficult to discover. The supposition that he was afraid of being betrayed, and for this reason killed these strangers, not wishing to be troubled with them, is improbable, for the simple reason that these strangers did not want to go to Mizpah, but to Jerusalem. For the supposition of Thenius (on 2Ki 25:23) and of Schmieder, that the people had intended going to Mizpah to a house of God that was there, is very properly rejected by Hitzig, because no mention is made in history of a place of worship at Mizpah; and, according to the express statement of Jer 41:6., Ishmael had enticed them into this city only by inviting them to come and see Gedaliah. Had Ishmael wished merely to conceal the murder of Gedaliah from these strangers, he ought to have done anything but let them into Mizpah. As little can we regard this deed (with Graf) as an act of revenge on these Israelites by Ishmael for the murder of his relations and equals in rank by Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 52:10), because these men, who had now for a long time been living together with heathens, were Assyrian and Chaldean subjects. For we cannot comprehend how he could look on these Israelites as friends of the Chaldeans, and vent his anger against the Chaldean rule by murdering them; the mournful procession which they formed, and the offerings they were carrying to present, proclaimed them faithful adherents of Judah. Ngelsbach, accordingly, is of opinion that Ishmael had simply intended robbery. As it is evident that he, a rough and wild man, had assassinated the noble Gedaliah from personal jealousy, and in order to further the political interest of his Ammonite patron, he must have been seeking to put himself in the position of his victim, or to flee. “When we find, moreover, that he soon murdered a peaceable caravan of pilgrims, and preserved the lives only of a few who offered to show him hidden treasures; when, finally, we perceive that the whole turba imbellis of Mizpah were seized and carried off into slavery, Ishmael proves himself a mere robber.” But, though the fact that Ishmael spared the lives of the ten men who offered to show him hidden treasures seems to support this view, yet the supposition that nothing more than robbery was intended does not suffice to explain the double murder. The two series of assassinations plainly stand in the closest connection, and must have been executed from one and the same motive. It was at the instigation of the Ammonite king that Ishmael murdered Gedaliah; moreover, as we learn from the report brought to Gedaliah by Johanan (Jer 40:15), the crime was committed in the expectation that the whole of Judah would then be dispersed, and the remnant of them perish. This murder was thus the work of the Ammonite king, who selected the royally-descended Ishmael as his instrument simply because he could conveniently, for the execution of his plans, employ the personal envy of one man against another who had been preferred by the king of Babylon. There can be no doubt that the same motive which urged him to destroy the remnant of Judah, i.e., to frustrate the attempt to gather and restore Judah, was also at work in the massacre of the pilgrims who were coming to the temple. If Ishmael, the leader of a robber-gang, had entered into the design of the Ammonite king, then everything that might serve for the preservation and consolidation of Judah must have been a source of pain to him; and this hatred of his towards Judah, which derived its strength and support from his religious views, incited him to murder the Jewish pilgrims to the temple, although the prospect of obtaining treasures might well cooperate with this in such a way as to make him spare the ten men who pretended they had hidden stores. With this, too, we can easily connect the hypocritical dealing on the part of Ishmael, in going forth, with tears, to meet these pious pilgrims, so that he might deceive them by making such a show of grief over the calamity that had befallen Judah; fore the wicked often assume an appearance of sanctity for the more effectual accomplishment of their evil deeds. The lxx evidently did not know what to make of this passage as it stands; hence, in Jer 41:6, they have quite dropped the words “from Mizpah,” and have rendered by . Hitzig and Graf accept this as indicating the original text, since Ishmael had no ostensible ground for weeping. But the reasons which are supposed to justify this conjecture are, as Ngelsbach well remarks, of such a nature that one can scarcely believe they are seriously held.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
We here see that the barbarity of Ishmael was connected with avarice, he was indeed inflamed with ferocious madness when he slew simple and innocent men; but when the hope of gain was presented to him, he spared some of them. Thus then we see that he was a lion, a wolf, or a bear in savageness, but that he was also a hungry man, for as soon as he smelt the odor of prey, he spared ten out of the eighty, who, it is probable, thus redeemed their life 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 suffer these to escape? even 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, even because Ishmael sought nothing else but gain. And it is probable that in a state of things so disturbed he was not furnished with provisions and other things. As, then, want urged him, so he became moderate, lest his cruelty should cause a loss to him.
Here also is set before us the inscrutable purpose of God, that he suffered unhappy men to have been thus slain by robbers. They had left. their houses to lament the burning of the Temple. As 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 indeed was sad, having been slain by Ishmael whom he had hospitably entertained. Thus God did not suffer him to be tossed about in the midst of great troubles. For John, the son of Kareah, who yet was a most faithful man, would have become soon troublesome to the holy man; for he became soon after the head and ringleader of an impious faction, and ferociously opposed Jeremiah. Had then Gedaliah lived, he would have been assailed on every side by his own people. It was then God’s purpose to free him at once from all these miserable troubles. The same thing also happened to the seventy who were slain; for the Lord removed them to their rest, that they might; not be exposed to the grievous evils and calamities which afterwards soon followed; for none could have been in a more miserable state than the remnant whom Nebuchadnezzar had spared. We have then reason in this instance to admire the secret purpose of God, when we see that these unhappy men were killed, who yet had gone to Jerusalem for the sake of testifying their piety. It was, in short, better for them to have been removed than to have been under the necessity of suffering again many miseries. It now follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) But ten men were found among them.The stores which formed the purchase-money by which the ten saved their lives represented probably the produce of the previous year, which, after the manner of the East, had been concealed in pits, far from the habitations of men, while the land was occupied by the Chaldan armies.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Treasures In Isa 45:3, the same original word is translated “ hid den riches.” Doubtless at this troublous and dangerous time the practice of concealing the choicest products of the earth in caves or subterranean chambers must have been quite common.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 41:8. We have treasures in the field Dr. Shaw tells us that in Barbary, when the grain is winnowed, they lodge it in mattamores or subterraneous repositories; two or three hundred of which are sometimes close to each other, the smallest holding four hundred bushels. These are very common in other parts of the East, and are in particular mentioned by Dr. Russel, as being in great numbers near Aleppo, about the villages; which renders travelling there in the night very dangerous, the entrance into them being often left open, when they are empty. The like method, it should seem, of keeping corn, obtains in the Holy Land; for Le Bruyn speaks of deep pits at Ramah, which he was told were designed for corn; and Rauwolf talks of three very large vaults at Joppa, actually used for the laying up of grain, when he was there. The treasures in the field of wheat, &c. which the ten men here proposed to Ishmael as the ransom for their lives, were doubtless laid up in the same kind of repositories. Dr. Shaw only speaks of the Arabs hiding corn in these mattamores. But as these ten Jews mentioned their having honey and oil in these repositories, so the author of the history of the piratical states of Barbary tells us, that it is usual with the Arabs, when they expect the armies of Algiers, to secure their corn, and other effects which are not portable, in subterraneous repositories, wandering about with their flocks till the troops are returned to their quarters. See the Observations, p. 420.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 41:8 But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not: for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their brethren.
Ver. 8. But there were ten men found among them. ] Qui miro astu sibi ab indigna morte provident, who pleaded for their lives, were spared.
Slay us not, for we have treasures in the field.
So he forbare, and slew them not.
a Foxe’s Mart., vol. i. p. 925
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
treasures = hidden [treasures, or stores].
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 41:8-10
Jer 41:8-10
THE TAKING OF PRISONERS AT MIZPAH
But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their brethren. Now the pit wherein Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain, by the side of Gedaliah (the same was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel,) Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with them that were slain. Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon.
Slay us not, for we have stores hidden…
(Jer 41:8). This was merely a bribe, greedily accepted by Ishmael, the wondering being that he did not immediately slay them also, as soon as he discovered their store of hidden supplies. It was customary in those times to hide such supplies in excavations (cisterns and the like) by covering them with a layer of earth.
The same (pit, or cistern) was that which Asa the king had made…
(Jer 41:9). The purpose of this is to explain that the cistern which Ishmael filled with the bodies of those whom he murdered was no ordinary cistern, but a very large one, originally intended to supplement the water supply of the whole city. Now any ordinary cistern would require several hundred men to fill it; and from this revelation here, we are compelled to conclude that it was actually some tremendous number of people who fell before the ruthless sword of this terminal rascal of the house of David.
Then Ishmael carried away captive…
etc. (Jer 41:10). There would appear to have been a great many of these captives; and the prompt maneuver of Ishmael in an attempt to carry them into the land of the Ammonites indicates, as Jamieson said, that, He probably meant to sell them all as slaves to the Ammonites.
The king’s daughters…
(Jer 41:10). These were not only the actual children of Zedekiah, but such other female members of the royal entourage as the Chaldeans had not cared to take away to Babylon. It is not so stated in this passage, but it appears likely that Jeremiah was among the captives whom Ishmael was in the act of transporting to the land of the Ammonites.
4. The deliverance of the hostages (Jer 41:10-16)
After the slaughter of the Israelite pilgrims Ishmael and his men took captive the entire population of Mizpah. Among the captives were the daughters of the king, i.e., princesses of the royal house whom Nebuchadnezzar had permitted to remain in Judah. Ishmaels motives here are not entirely clear. Did he intend to sell these captives on a foreign slave market? Did he intend to use these people as hostages to guarantee his safe return across the Jordan to Ammon? In view of the detail in which the escapades of Ishmael are recounted, One cannot help but wonder if Jeremiah and Baruch were among the Mizpah captives. This, of course, must remain a matter of speculation.
It was not long before the Mizpah massacre was discovered. When Johanan and the other captives heard what had happened they took decisive action (Jer 41:11). They immediately gathered together their fighting men and set out in pursuit of the brigands. The force of Johanan caught Up with Ishmael at the great waters near Gibeon three miles southwest of Mizpah (Jer 41:12). The pool is mentioned in 2Sa 2:13 as the place of the battle between Abner and Joab. When the frightened captives saw the forces of Johanan approaching they took new heart, broke ranks and ran in the direction of their deliverers (Jer 41:13-14). Ishmael and eight of his men were successful in escaping from Johanan, but two of the murderers apparently were caught and slain (Jer 41:15).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Slay: Job 2:4, Psa 49:6-8, Pro 13:8, Mat 6:25, Mat 16:26, Mar 8:36, Mar 8:37, Phi 3:7-9
treasures: These “treasures hid in the field” were doubtless laid up in subterranean pits, similar to the mattamores in Barbary, in which, Dr. Shaw informs us, they deposit the grain when winnowed; two or three hundred of them being sometimes together, and the smallest holding four hundred bushels. The same mode of keeping corn prevails in Syria and the Holy Land.
Reciprocal: Gen 37:26 – What profit 2Ki 7:8 – hid it 1Ch 27:25 – the storehouses Pro 21:20 – oil
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 41:8. There were ten men who had survived the attacks of Ishmael. They bribed him to spare them on the ground that they possessed valuable fields and products. Should Ishmael slay them there would be no one to show him where to find these valuable products. On this ground Ishmael was himself misled and he spared their lives.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Ten of the men from the north convinced Ishmael to let them live by claiming that they had a hidden cache of food stored in a field. The Israelites frequently used dry wells and cisterns as underground silos. [Note: Harrison, Jeremiah and . . ., p. 162.] Apparently Ishmael needed these supplies and so allowed these 10 men to live, at least until he had confiscated their food.