Kareah

Kareah, also spelled Careah, appears in scripture only as the father of Johanan and Jonathan, two of the captains of the forces who survived the fall of Jerusalem and rallied around Gedaliah at Mizpah. The name itself never speaks or acts; Kareah is preserved entirely through patronymic notice, attached to sons whose decisions shaped the fate of the Judean remnant.

Father of the Captains at Mizpah

When Nebuzaradan installs Gedaliah as governor over those left in the land, the scattered captains of the forces hear of it and come to Mizpah. Among them are "Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men" (2Ki 25:23). Jeremiah's parallel account widens the family notice, listing "Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah" alongside the other captains gathering to Gedaliah (Jer 40:8). A second notice in the same chapter repeats the patronymic when the captains in the fields come in to Gedaliah at Mizpah (Jer 40:13).

Heard of the Evil at Mizpah

After Ishmael the son of Nethaniah murders Gedaliah, the patronymic reappears as the hinge of the rescue. "But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done" (Jer 41:11), they pursue Ishmael and overtake him at the great waters in Gibeon. The captives recognize their deliverer: "when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad" (Jer 41:13), and the people Ishmael had carried away "turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah" (Jer 41:14). The recovered remnant is then gathered under the same name: "Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam" (Jer 41:16).

Father of Those Who Sought and Refused the Word

Kareah's name continues to mark his son through the consultation with Jeremiah and its aftermath. "Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near" (Jer 42:1) to ask the prophet to seek Yahweh on their behalf. When the answer forbids the flight into Egypt, the same patronymic identifies the leader of the refusal: "Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, You speak falsely: Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, You⁺ will not go into Egypt to sojourn there" (Jer 43:2).

Kareah himself never appears as an actor; the whole weight of the name in scripture is the line "the son of Kareah," repeated through the brief, turbulent record of Judah's last captains.