Jeremiah 40:11,12

When all the Jews that were in Moab... — It lay in the nature of things that many of the dwellers in Judæa fled before the march of the Chaldæan armies, and took refuge in the neighbouring regions. In Ruth 1:2; 1 Samuel 22:3; Isaiah 16:4, we find analogous instances of fugitives from Judah finding shelter in the Moabite country. These, on hearing of the generous policy adopted by Gedaliah, took courage and returned in time to profit by his permission to gather the produce which otherwise would have been left to perish on the soil.