ירמיהו, פרק מ״א, פסוק ט״ז

Following the tragic assassination of Gedaliah, Johanan steps in to take command of the surviving population, working to consolidate a fractured and vulnerable people. He builds his following by gathering two distinct groups of survivors.

The first group consists of individuals associated with the settlement of Mizpah. Perspectives differ on their exact identity. One approach suggests they were the captives taken directly from Mizpah immediately after the murder [מצודת דוד]. Another view proposes that these were people who had remained near Mizpah after the assassin departed. They originally intended to follow him into Ammonite territory, but Johanan successfully intervened, changing their minds and turning them back from that path [מלבי״ם].

The second group is made up of the captives who had been forcibly taken away. Johanan successfully rescued these individuals after pursuing and catching up with their captor in the region of Gibeon [מלבי״ם].

The composition of this rescued population gathered from Gibeon was highly diverse [מצודת דוד]. It included men [מצודת ציון], women, and children, alongside a specific class of court officials. The primary approach among commentators is that these officials were not eunuchs in the physical sense, but rather respected government administrators, ministers, and individuals holding formal positions of authority.