Ishmael son of Nethaniah

When all the army officers and their men who were still in the open country heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor over the land, and had put him in charge of the men, women, and children who were the poorest in the land, and who had not been carried into exile to Babylon, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.

Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jazaniah the son of the Maacathite, and their men.

Gedaliah son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan took an oath to reassure them and their men.

"Do not be afraid to serve the Babylonians," he said.

But you are to harvest the wine, summer fruit, and olive oil, and put them in your storage jars, and live in the towns you have taken over." When all the Jews in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as governor over them.

They all came back to the land of Judah to Gedaliah at Mizpah from all the countries where they had been scattered, and they harvested an abundance of wine and summer fruit.

Johanan son of Karea and all the army officers still in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah and said to him, Don't you know that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to take your life? But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.

Then Johanan son of Karea said privately to Gedaliah in Mizpah, Let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one will know it.

What is that? What is that? What is this final little uprising about? What's taking place here? As if the exile isn't bad enough, all this falling action leaves more darkness.

Here you have a man, Ishmael, and he and his band of executioners, they come and they butcher this man that Nebuchadnezzar left in charge.

He just took a local man, left him in charge, says you're going to be governor over this land.

It's a really typical thing for military to do.

They did that and Ishmael comes up and he takes him out.

Now, we have to be careful before we start to think, well, maybe this is kind of like David versus Goliath.

Nobody else wants to fight the good fight.

I'll have resolve and I'll do that.

Under Gedaliah's wise and careful rule, the broken land began to thrive once more, and Jewish refugees who had fled began to return home.

Among them was Ishmael Ben Netanya, a member of the Judean royal family, who felt personally slighted that he hadn't been chosen to rule Judea's remaining Jews.

So when the king of Ammon, who was very worried about this Judean renaissance, approached him about assassinating Gedaliah, Ishmael readily agreed.

Gedaliah had heard rumors of the plot against him.

And this is, I have now tons of material that I've written over the years, but this is verse number 1 says of Jeremiah 41.

But in the mid-autumn of that year, Ishmael, son of Nathanael, the grandson of Ishmael, who was the member of the royal family...

And had been one of the king's high officials, went to Mizpahs with 10 men to meet Gebelah while they were eating together.

And then it goes on and talks about how that they killed him.