The seventh month came, and with it a man named Ishmael. He was of the royal seed, a son of Nethaniah, and he brought ten men with him to Mizpah. They came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the governor appointed by Babylon, and they ate bread together. The meal was ordinary, the setting familiar. But the bread did not bind them.
Ishmael and his men rose from that table and drew their swords. They struck Gedaliah down—the man whom the king of Babylon had set over the land. The governor's trust was repaid with steel. Then they killed every Jew who had stood with Gedaliah, and every Chaldean soldier stationed there. Mizpah, which had been a fragile center of order, became a slaughterhouse.
For two days, no one knew what had happened. The bodies lay where they fell. The pit near the city waited. Then a company of eighty men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, from Samaria. Their beards were shaved, their clothes torn, their bodies cut—signs of mourning. They carried meal offerings and frankincense to bring to the house of the Lord.
Ishmael went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he walked. He looked like a man sharing their grief. He said to them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. They followed him into the city. When they were inside, Ishmael and his men killed them and threw them into the pit.
Ten of the eighty pleaded for their lives. They told Ishmael they had stores hidden in the field—wheat, barley, oil, honey. He spared them. The rest were cast into the pit, the same pit that King Asa had dug long ago when he feared Baasha king of Israel. It was filled now with the dead.
Then Ishmael took captive everyone left in Mizpah—the king's daughters, the people whom Nebuzaradan had entrusted to Gedaliah. He carried them off and set out to cross over to the Ammonites. Mizpah was emptied. The remnant was dragged away.
Johanan the son of Kareah heard of the evil. He and all the captains of the forces with him gathered their men and went to fight Ishmael. They found him by the great waters at Gibeon.
When the captives saw Johanan and his captains, they were glad. They turned around and came back to him. But Ishmael escaped with eight men and fled to the Ammonites. The rest were recovered—the men of war, the women, the children, the eunuchs—all brought back from Gibeon.
But they did not return to Mizpah. They went to Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem, planning to go down to Egypt. They were afraid of the Chaldeans. Ishmael had killed the governor whom Babylon had appointed, and they knew the empire would answer. The land that had barely begun to breathe was choking again.