Jeremiahchapter 35
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Speaks with:Jeremiah 35×4Jeremiah 25×3Jeremiah 7×21 Chronicles 2×2Jeremiah 1×12 Kings 23×1
Summary
Chapter summary
Jeremiah brings the Rechabites into a chamber of the temple, sets pots full of wine and cups before them, and says, Drink. They refuse: Jonadab their father commanded them to drink no wine, build no house, sow no seed, plant no vineyard, but dwell in tents, and they have obeyed for generations, entering Jerusalem only to escape the Babylonian army. The contrast is the whole lesson. A dead ancestor's word has been kept without exception, while Jehovah has risen up early and sent his prophets, saying Return, and Judah has not inclined its ear. The house of Rechab receives its own promise: Jonadab shall not want a man to stand before Jehovah for ever.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–11 The Rechabites Refuse the Cup of Wine
- B. 12–19 Jonadab's Sons Obeyed Their Father, but Judah Would Not
The outline
A.The Rechabites Refuse the Cup of Winevv. 1 to 11
Read vv. 1 to 11 →B.Jonadab's Sons Obeyed Their Father, but Judah Would Notvv. 12 to 19
Read vv. 12 to 19 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 35The history
The Rechabites were a clan with a two-hundred-year-old family rule from an ancestor named Jonadab: drink no wine, build no house, sow no seed, plant no vineyard, live in tents all your days. It was a deliberately old-fashioned way of life, keeping the mobility of the desert while the country around them settled into farms and towns.
They are in Jerusalem only because of a raid. Nebuchadnezzar's forces, with Aramean and other auxiliaries, were sweeping the countryside in the last years of Jehoiakim, and country people took refuge behind city walls. A tent clan sheltering inside a stone city is already a sign of how bad things were.
The test is staged in the temple itself, in a chamber belonging to the sons of a man named Hanan — the temple complex had rooms used by officials and priestly families. Full jars of wine and cups are set in front of them and they are told to drink. They refuse, and explain the family rule, and that is the whole demonstration.
The point is not that abstinence is holier. Nothing in the chapter commands anyone else to stop drinking. The point is obedience to a dead ancestor's word for two centuries, set against a nation that would not obey a living God who rose early and sent prophets again and again.
What it meant to them
For the first hearers the sting is the comparison. A family with no prophets, no temple, no covenant at Sinai, and only a great-grandfather's instruction had a better compliance record than the people of the book.
The reward given the Rechabites is quiet and permanent: Jonadab shall never lack a man to stand before me. Faithfulness in a small, unfashionable thing is noticed and remembered.
Sources cited
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 35. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.