Just as some form of normality begins to take place under Gedaliah’s rule, a threat emerges that could crush the hopes of those who are left in Judah. Led by Johanan, the leaders of the forces who were named in Jeremiah 40:8 come to Gedaliah and ask him, Do you know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?
Johanan and the others have become aware of a plot by Baalis the king of the Ammonites to have Gedaliah assassinated. The king’s co-conspirator is Ishmael, one of the captains who has returned to Mizpah with his men. The Ammonites had been part of the attempted rebellion against Babylon (Jeremiah 27:3) and it seems they had revolted against Nebuchadnezzar at the same time as Judah had under Zedekiah’s rule.1 Despite the crushing defeat that Babylon had inflicted on Judah and on some of her neighbours who had tried to resist, there was still a strong anti-Babylonian feeling in the region and a belief that rebellion may yet succeed. No explanation is given for why the king of the Ammonites would want Gedaliah assassinated, but it is very likely that he saw an opportunity to not only remove a governor loyal to Babylon, but to gain some sort of foothold in a much-weakened Judah. It seems that in Ishmael he found a willing co-conspirator who no doubt saw an opportunity to grasp political power for himself. In Jeremiah 41:1 we are told that he was of royal descent and he perhaps felt that he should be ruling over Judah and not Gedaliah who was not of the line of David.
The fact that Johanan reveals the plot to Gedaliah in the form of a question suggests that it was fairly common knowledge. There seems to be an element of surprise that Gedaliah is not aware of what is happening. This gives us the first hint of the kind of naivety that ultimately led to Gedaliah’s downfall.
14 et lui dirent: Sais-tu que Baalis, roi des Ammonites, a chargé Ismaël, fils de Nethania, de t'ôter la vie? Mais Guedalia, fils d'Achikam, ne les crut point.