3. Then they killed the Jews who were with Gedaliah, and they also killed the Babylonian soldiers who were there.
4. The next day, the murders had still not been discovered,
5. when eighty men came down the road towards Mizpah from the towns of Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. They were on their way to the temple to offer gifts of grain and incense to the Lord. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves, because they were mourning.
6. Ishmael went out of the town gate to meet them. He pretended to be weeping, and he asked them to come into Mizpah to meet with Gedaliah, the ruler of Judah.
7. But after they were inside the town, Ishmael ordered his soldiers to kill them and throw their bodies into a well.
8. He let ten of the men live, because they offered to give him supplies of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey they had hidden in a field.
9. The well that he filled with bodies had been dug by King Asa of Judah to store rainwater, because he was afraid that King Baasha of Israel might surround Mizpah and keep the people from getting to their water supply.