Governor Gedaliah murdered
2 Kings 25:22–26; Jeremiah 40–41
Babylon made Gedaliah governor over the poor left in Judah; within months a member of the royal family, Ishmael, murdered him at Mizpah.
Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah arose, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
Jeremiah 41:2 (World English Bible)
Gedaliah, from a family that had protected Jeremiah, urged the survivors to settle down and serve Babylon. He was warned of a plot but refused to believe it. Ishmael, backed by the king of Ammon, killed him along with Judeans and Babylonian soldiers at his table.
Jews later remembered the day with a fast in the seventh month, one of the fasts mentioned in Zechariah 8:19.
Places
JerusalemEgyptBabylonMoabSamariaEdomAmmonChaldeaBethlehemShechemGibeonShilohMizpahRamahGeruth Chimham
Dating notes
The seventh month of 588 BC (Jeremiah 41:1; Ussher).