Now it came to pass in the seventh month, [that] Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah.
Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the seventh month.] Within two or three months after the destruction of Jerusalem. So soon did this wicked wretch, so spurred on by ambition, which ever rideth without reins, renew the miserable fate of his forlorn country. And the like did Barcocab and his seditious complices after the last devastation, thereby bringing upon themselves again the Roman forces, who thereupon, under Adrian the emperor, utterly took away both their place and their nation.
That Ishmael of the seed royal.] And therefore affecting the kingdom, or at least the ruledom; and envying that Gedaliah - a new man, or mushroom rather, - should be preferred before him.
And the princes of the king.] Who had been princes and grandees, as the Hebrew hath it, in Zedekiah's days, with whom likely they fled and escaped, stealing away by night, though he could not. 2Ki 25:4
Even ten men with him.] Whom Ishmael had promised probably to restore their principalities when he should be king, or viceroy at least under Baalis King of Ammon, the great engineer of all the ensuing mischief wrought by Ishmael and these ten desperadoes together with their retinue.
Came unto Gedaliah.] To whom before they had done homage, and now came pretending to give him a friendly visit.
“ Tuta frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen:
Tuta frequensque licet sit via, crimen habet. ”
And there they did eat bread, ] i.e., They feasted. Much treachery and cruelty hath been exercised at feasts. Absalom slew Amnon at a feast; so did Zimri King Elah; so did Alexander Philotas; so doth the Great Turk many of his bashaws; the black gown is cast upon them as they sit with him at supper, and then they are strangled. a
a Turkish History.