And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.
Nebuchadnezzar ... made Gedaliah ... ruler. The people permitted to remain were, besides the king's daughters, a few court attendants and others (Jeremiah 40:7), too insignificant to be removed-only the peasantry who could till the land and dress the vineyards. Gedaliah was Jeremiah's friend (Jeremiah 26:24), and having, by the prophet's counsel, probably fled from the city as abandoned of God, he surrendered himself to the conqueror (Jeremiah 38:2; Jeremiah 38:17), and being promoted to the government of Judea, fixed bit provincial court at Mizpah. He was well qualified to surmount the difficulties of ruling at each a crisis. Many of the fugitive Jews, as well as the soldiers of Zedekiah who had accompanied the king in his flight to the plains of Jericho, left their retreats (Jeremiah 40:11-12), and flocked around the governor, who, having counseled them to submit, promised them, on complying with this condition, security on oath, that they would retain their possessions and enjoy the produce of their land (Jeremiah 40:9).