And it was [so], when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, [and cast them] into the midst of the pit, he, and the men that [were] with him.
Ver. 7. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them.] This hell hound having once, as other hounds, dipped his tongue in blood, can put no period to his unparalleled cruelty.
He, and the men that were with him.] His slaughter slaves, his assassins to help him; for he alone could not have done this bloody execution, unless he had taken as much time thereunto as that Popish villain did in doing to death those poor Protestants of Calabria, A.D. 1550. For as Ishmael here brought these eighty innocent men into the midst of the city as into a pound, and there slew them, so eighty-eight poor professors of the truth according to godliness, being all thrust up in one house together, as sheep in a fold, the executioner comes in, saith Mr Foxe, and among them takes one and blindfolds him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leads him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down, which being done, he cutteth his throat, and so leaving him half dead, and taking his butcher's knife and muffler all of gore blood, cometh again to the rest, and so leadeth them one after another till he had despatched them all. a
a Acts and Mon., 859.