⁵While he still had not turned back, Nebuzaradan added, “Return to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed in an official position over the towns of Judah, and stay with him in the midst of the people. Or to wherever it is right in your eyes to go, then go there.”^k Then the captain of the guard^l gave him an allowance of provisions and a present, and let him go. ⁶So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah and stayed with him in the midst of the people who were left in the land.

The Assassination of Gedaliah

⁷When all the commanders of the armies who were in the open country and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam in an official position in the land, and that he had put him in charge of^m men, and women, and little children, and of the poor of the land, of all those who had not been deported to Babylon, ⁸then they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, and Jehonathan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. ⁹And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying,ⁿ “You must not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you. ¹⁰As for me,^o look, I am staying at Mizpah to represent you before^p the Chaldeans who come to us. But you, gather wine and summer fruit and oil, and put them in your vessels, and live in your towns that you have seized.” ¹¹And also all the Judeans who were in Moab, and among the Ammonites,^q and in Edom, and who were in all the lands, when they heard that the king of Babylon had given a remnant to Judah and that he had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, in an official position over them, ¹²then all the Judeans returned from all the places to which they were scattered. And they came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and they gathered wine and summer fruit that yielded in great abundance.^r

Read in Logos

Footnotes

kHere the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
lHebrew “guards”
mLiterally “he had appointed to him”
nLiterally “to say”
oLiterally “And I”
pLiterally “to the face of”
qLiterally “sons of Ammon”
rLiterally “very numerous”