Jeremiah 41:18 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Here was one slain whom the conqueror Nebuchadnezzar had made governor in the land of Judah, and it was but reasonable for them to think that Nebuchadnezzar would take the affront done to himself, he being constituted governor by him; and though Johanan had nothing to do in that murder, yet he did not know but that the king of Babylon, being ignorant of any parties amongst the Jews, might look upon them, all as guilty who were Jews, and revenge Gedaliah's blood upon all the remainder of that nation; he therefore chooseth them a habitation for the present, from whence they might in a short time go down into Egypt, which was Johanan's design, as we shall read in, the next chapter.