When all the captains of the forces in the open country and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land and had committed to him men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile to Babylon,
Mention has been before made of Gedaliah. We have seen that the Prophet was once rescued from death through his kindness, for he interposed for him when almost all with one consent doomed the holy Prophet to death. There is here an oversight; it was his father Ahikam that delivered the Prophet, as recorded in the twenty-sixth chapter (Jeremiah 26). — Ed.
We have in these verses, I. A bright sky opening upon the remnant of the Jews that were left in their own land, and a comfortable prospect given them of some peace and quietness after the many years of trouble and terror with which they had been afflicted.
Commenting on Jeremiah 40:7-16
Now when all the captains of the forces which were in the fields,.... Not the captains of the king of Babylon's forces, but the captains of the king of Judah's forces; who either during the siege had lurked in the fields and villages, not daring to fall upon the Chaldean army, or attempt to raise the siege; or rather who fled with Zedekiah from Jerusalem...