Ishmael’s conduct seems to have been dictated by the malicious desire utterly to frustrate Gedaliah’s work.
Weeping - By this artifice he lured them into Mizpah. The Septuagint: “as they were ... weeping.”
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 41:6
Jeremiah 41:6
6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weepinga all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said unto them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.