Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was it which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with them that were slain.
Whom he had slain because of Gedaliah - rather, 'near Gedaliah'-literally by the hand (i:e., by the side) of Gedaliah. Those intercepted by Ishmael on their way from Samaria to Jerusalem were killed near Mizpah, where Gedaliah had lived. So 2 Chronicles 17:15, "next;" Nehemiah 3:2, margin, literally, as here, 'at his hand.' Calvin explains it, 'In the reign of Gedaliah.' However, the English version gives a good sense: Ishmael's reason for killing them was because of his supposing them to be connected with Gedaliah.