Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Ishmael . . . of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah—He had found refuge with Baalis, king of the Ammonites, and he returned with a bad design, being either instigated by envy of a governor not descended from the house of David, or bribed by Baalis to murder Gedaliah. The generous governor, though apprised of his intentions, refused to credit the report, much less to sanction the proposal made by an attached friend to cut off Ishmael. The consequence was, that he was murdered by this same Ishmael, when entertaining him in his own house (Jeremiah 41:1).
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 his provincial court at Mizpeh. He was well qualified to surmount the difficulties of ruling at such 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 counselled 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).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 2 Kings 25:25:
Jeremiah 41:1
Ezekiel 21:28
Zechariah 7:5
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