Jeremiah 40:8

Ishmael. The Massorites ( App-30 ) set their hand to obliterate the Divine names in the case of men who had served to disgrace it. One is ' el , in the compound "Ishmael", which means "whom my El heareth". It is used of five different men, and occurs forty-eight times: twenty times of Hagar's son; twenty-three times of Nethaniah's son in this history; and five times of the other three. On account of his horrible treachery, the memory of which is perpetuated by the fast of the seventh month (Zechariah 7:5 ; Zechariah 8:9 ), the vowel points were changed to obliterate the Divine Name (El): viz. yishma'el, instead of yishma'el, which is not observable in the ordinary English spelling.

sons. Some codices, with Aram, and Septuagint, read "son", as in Jeremiah 40:13 .

Netophathite = a man of Netophah, now Khan Umm Tobah, north of Bethlehem (1 Chronicles 2:54 .Ezra 2:22 .Nehemiah 7:26; Nehemiah 7:26 ).