Commentaire sur Jérémie 41:8

But ten men were found among them, who - in thinking that Gedaliah had ordered to smite them for going to the house of the LORD - said... 'Slay us not, for we have stores hidden in the field.' [Meaning,] a bribe will be given to Gedaliah if he keeps us alive. Therefore, he didn't kill them so that they should think that all of this was done by order of Gedaliah. His intention was that if dread fell upon the survivors that Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Gedaliah to murder innocent people who were mourning over the destruction, then they would all rejoice and praise him for killing Gedaliah, who had murdered people unjustly, and this is what it said And the pit wherein Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain by the hand of Gedaliah. That he had in fact smote them "by the hand of Gedaliah" and his order. (Meaning, that he said this: Gedaliah had commanded to smite them down.) [The pit...] that Asa the king had made because of Baasa... Through this it informs [us] what sin causes. For it already explained (Kings I 15:17) that Baasa had built the tower so as to prevent access to Asa the king of Judah, namely, to prevent Israel from going up on pilgrimage [to the Temple]. (The main path on the pilgrimage was the road of Mizpah, as it is written (Hosea 5) "That you were a trap for Mizpah.") Asa's forces also stood there to guard those going on pilgrimage and to battle against Baasa troops. And [Asa] had made the pit to store enough water for his forces. If so, this pit, which was made to assist those going to the house of the LORD, now, by the sins of the generation, they threw there the corpses of those going to the house of the LORD.