Jeremiah 41:8 - Exposition

Slay us not, etc. Bishop Callaway refers to this passage in his 'Zulu Nursery Tales' (1.242), in illustration of a Zulu form of deprecating death on the ground of having some important work in hand which absolutely requires the life of the person in danger. But the "ten men" do not, as the bishop supposes, beg their lives on the ground that they had not yet harvested, but rather offer a bribe. We have treasures (literally, hidden things ) in the field. The allusion is to the "wells or cisterns for grain," in which "the farmers store their crops of all kinds after the grain is threshed and winnowed. These cisterns are cool, perfectly dry, and tight. The top is hermetically sealed with plaster, and covered with a deep bed of earth; and thus they keep out rats, mice, and even ants, the latter by no means a contemptible enemy ….These ten men had doubtless thus hid their treasures to avoid being plundered in that time of utter lawlessness". Honey . Probably that obtained from wild bees.