Gedaliah Receives And Rejects A Warning About Ishmael's Intentions (Jeremiah 40:13-16).
The loyal former resistance commanders learned of Ishmael's plottings, and came to Gedaliah and warned him of Ishmael's intentions. They were now content to settle in the land under Gedaliah's governorship. So they warned him that Ishmael was plotting with the king of Ammon to have Gedaliah assassinated. One of them even offered to have Ishmael done to death secretly. But like many honest men Gedaliah could not conceive of such treachery, and forbade any action against Ishmael on the grounds that their information must be untrue. He could not believe that Ishmael was capable of such treachery.
‘ Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were in the countryside, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, and said to him, “Do you know that Baalis the king of the children of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not believe them.'
It may well have been because he sounded them out as to whether they would give him assistance and support that Ishmael's plotting became known to the other former resistance commanders. However, they apparently had no desire to enter into an intrigue with the unsophisticated Ammonites, and were content with things as they now were. So they approached Gedaliah in order to warn him. Gedaliah on the other hand did not believe that what they were saying was true.
We do not know why Baalis, the king of the tribal Ammonites who were a people who were only half civilised, had a grudge against Gedaliah. And indeed his main aim may simply have been to keep things stirred up in Judah so as to divert Nebuchadrezzar's attention from Ammon. But it may also have been with a view to using the resulting turmoil to seize land belonging to Judah. The Ammonites had themselves previously been involved with Judah in plots against Babylon (Jeremiah 27:3). Baalis is unknown from history unless the name Ba‘ly found on the Siran bottle dated 667-580 BC refers to him.
Ishmael's purpose might have been the result of a desire for power, or it may have resulted from greed or jealousy, or it may simply have been with a view to obtaining vengeance for what had happened to his family. But whatever it was he would serve Judah ill.
‘Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, “Let me go, I pray you, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it. Why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?”
Aware of the consequences of any assassination of a Babylonian appointed governor, Johanan, one of the former resistance commanders, offered to have Ishmael secretly assassinated in order to save the situation. Neither he nor his fellow-commanders wanted the turmoil and consequences that would result. Possibly there is a hint here of what the king of Ammon was hoping for.
‘But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “You shall not do this thing, for you speak falsely of Ishmael.”
But Gedaliah would have none of it. He refused to believe that Ishmael was capable of such a thing, and rebuked Johanan for suggesting false ideas.