Jeremiah 41:6-8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And Ishmael went forth to meet them, weeping all along as he went As if he sympathized with them, and bewailed, as they did, the desolations of Jerusalem. He appears to have been a complete hypocrite. As he met them he said, Come to Gedaliah He invites them to the new governor for protection, as if he had been one of his courtiers and friends, and by these arts conceals his bloody design against them. And when they came into the midst of the city Whence they could not easily escape; Ishmael slew them Though they had given him no provocation, and indeed, as it seems, were entire strangers to him. And, no doubt, he took the offerings they had brought, and converted them to his own use: for he that did not hesitate to commit such a murder certainly would not scruple to commit sacrilege. And cast them into the midst of the pit The words, and cast them, are not in the Hebrew, which is literally, slew them in the midst of the pit. So also the LXX., εσφαξεν αυτους εις το φρεαρ. The Complutensian edition, however, supplies και ενεβαλεν, and cast them, which accords with the reading of the Syriac. The Vulgate renders the clause, interfecit eos Ismael circa medium laci: Ishmael slew them about the middle of the lake, or, pool; and Blaney reads, Ishmael massacred them at the pit. He and the men that were with him Hired, it seems, to assist him in this bloody work. But ten men were found that said, Slay us not, for we have treasures, &c. He slew seventy of them, but the remaining ten pleading for their lives, and urging that they had estates in the country of corn, oil, and honey, his covetousness prevailed over his cruelty, and he spared their lives, to become master of their property.