2 While they were eating together, Ishmael and his ten men got up. They killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam with a sword. Gedaliah was the man the king of Babylon had chosen as governor over Judah.
3 Ishmael killed all the Jews with Gedaliah at Mizpah, too. He also killed the Babylonian soldiers who were there with Gedaliah.
4-5 The day after Gedaliah was murdered, 80 men came to Mizpah. They were bringing grain offerings and incense to the Temple of the Lord. Those 80 men had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes and cut themselves. They came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria. None of them knew that Gedaliah had been murdered.
6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them. He cried as he walked. When he met them, he said, “Come with me to meet Gedaliah son of Ahikam.”
7 So they went into Mizpah. Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and his men killed 70 of them! They threw the bodies into a deep well.
8 But the 10 men who were left alive said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us! We have wheat and barley. And we have oil and honey. We have hidden these things in a field.” So Ishmael let those 10 men alone. He did not kill them with the others.
9 Now the well where he had thrown the bodies had been made by King Asa. Asa had made the well as a part of his defenses against Baasha king of Israel. But Ishmael son of Nethaniah put dead bodies in it until it was full.