Yochanan ben Kareach יוחנן בן קרח
an officer of the remnant of Judah; he led the survivors down to Egypt
One of the officers who were in the field and, after the Temple was destroyed, came with their men to Gedalyah at Mitzpah. He learned that Yishmael ben Netanyah had been sent by the king of Ammon, told the governor of it and asked leave to kill Yishmael secretly before Yishmael killed him: "Why should he take your life, so that all the Judeans gathered to you are scattered?" Gedalyah forbade it.
After the murder he gathered his men and pursued Yishmael, overtook him by the great waters at Givon and won back all who had been led away from Mitzpah. Yishmael himself escaped.
Afterwards he asked Yirmiyahu what to do: whether to go down to Egypt for fear of Babylon's revenge. Ten days later Yirmiyahu answered with the word of the Lord: stay in the land and it will go well with you; in Egypt you will perish. Yochanan answered that this was untrue, that Baruch ben Neriyah had set the prophet against them—and led the whole remnant down to Egypt, Yirmiyahu and Baruch with them. There the account of him in the Tanakh breaks off.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Yirmiyahu 40:8–16 — the coming to Mitzpah, the warning and Gedalyah's refusal
- Yirmiyahu 41:11–43:7 — the pursuit, the waters of Givon and the descent to Egypt against the prophecy
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.