Jeremiah 41:4

THE MURDER OF THE PILGRIMS

"And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it, that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with meal-offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them unto the house of Jehovah. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said unto them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. 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, and the men that were with him."

"Weeping all along as he went ..." (Jeremiah 41:6). The perfidious behavior of Ishmael was totally wicked. His weeping was hypocrisy; his pretended intention of helping the pilgrims was a lie; his murderous treachery was unlimited.

Scholars have attempted to guess why Ishmael destroyed those pilgrims, but the only suggestion that makes a little sense is that Baalis the king of Ammonites had instructed Ishmael, his partner in the plot, to terrorize the people with such atrocities in order to prevent any order from prevailing in the land. Also, it has been thought that Ishmael wanted to prevent any word of the murder from being carried far and near into all countries by such a company as that of the pilgrims. Then too, there is the supposition that Ishmael was merely a murderer who killed people for the gratification of his sadistic blood-lust. In any case, it was indeed a deed of infamy!

The shaven heads, the rent clothes, the cuts on their bodies, and the offerings in their hands, "Symbolized the distress of the pilgrims over the desertion and the destruction of the house of God."[2]

Some significant facts are implied by this account of the slain pilgrims. (1) The Jews still honored the commandment to worship God at one altar only, namely, the One in Jerusalem. (2) Also, even though the temple was destroyed, the ruins of it were considered sacred and "holy unto the Lord." "By the Jewish people, the Western wall of the temple in Jerusalem until this day is considered sacred."[3]

The senseless murder of those seventy pilgrims is utterly inexplicable, unless, as stated by Smith, "Ishmael intended to fill the whole land with terror, utterly frustrate Gedaliah's work, and destroy the last possibility of the land being in peace, which was also very likely the object of Baalis the king of Ammon."[4]