Jeremiahchapter 35
19 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
And we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab in all he commanded us. So we have not drunk wine all our lives—neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
This chapter steps back about ten years from the siege to the reign of Jehoiakim, when Babylonian raiders drove country people inside the walls of Jerusalem. The book places it here for its lesson rather than its date. It concerns the Rechabites, a family that lived in tents by a rule their ancestor gave them. Its first hearers knew what it meant to refuse a host's offer in the house of God, and they knew their own record with the prophets. Listen for the contrast the chapter draws between two kinds of obedience. The promise at its close is given to one family.
Context
- Who
- Judeans watching an outside family keep a rule their own nation had abandoned
- What
- An acted sign in the temple, in which the Rechabites refuse the wine Jeremiah sets before them, set against Judah's refusal to hear God.
- Where
- A side chamber of the temple in Jerusalem belonging to the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of God.
- When
- The reign of Jehoiakim, about 599 to 598 BC, when Babylonian and Aramean raiders were in the land.
- Why
- To shame Judah with a family that kept its ancestor's word for generations while the nation ignored the prophets God sent.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
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.
Significance
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the fourteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shmini 9:1. Under the nineteenth verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Chayei Sarah 8.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and his headwords, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi names the Rechabites as "The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab, and they were of the sons of Jethro" (Rashi on Jeremiah 35:2:1). Their life in tents follows from their descent: "They had no share in the land since they were the children of proselytes" (Rashi on Jeremiah 35:7:1). Their presence in Jerusalem he explains in their own voice. "Perforce we came to the city. Therefore, we are now dwelling in houses" (Rashi on Jeremiah 35:11:1).
The man of God in the fourth verse is "The prophet of the Lord", and the keeper of the threshold is a treasurer, as Targum Jonathan renders the office (Rashi on Jeremiah 35:4:1 and 35:4:2).
The corpus carries nineteen further notes on this chapter without an English text. Each is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so each is cited here and none is quoted. The notes of Radak are cited at Radak on Jeremiah 35:2:1, 35:6:1, 35:7:1, 35:11:1, 35:14:1, 35:15:1, 35:18:1 and 35:19:1. The notes of Metzudat David are cited at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 35:5:1, 35:6:1, 35:8:1, 35:9:1, 35:10:1, 35:13:1, 35:14:1, 35:15:1, 35:16:1 and 35:17:1. The note of Malbim is cited at Malbim on Jeremiah 35:10:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries twenty-two rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 169:3. On the fourth verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:28 and Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 91:1. On the sixth verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:1 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 4:29. On the tenth verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 4:28 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 18:27:27. On the fourteenth verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 10:9:3, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shmini 9:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Shmini 5:1.
On the sixteenth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:4:1. On the eighteenth verse it holds Sifrei Bamidbar 78:1. On the nineteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 5:9, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Chayei Sarah 8, Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Nazir 11 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:26. It holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Amalek 4:30, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bamidbar 33:2, Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 26:1, Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 82 and Sifrei Zuta 10:29:1 there as well. It holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 695:2 there as well. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 35:2:1 to 35:11:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 35:2:1, 35:6:1, 35:7:1, 35:11:1, 35:14:1, 35:15:1, 35:18:1 and 35:19:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 35:5:1, 35:6:1, 35:8:1, 35:9:1, 35:10:1, 35:13:1, 35:14:1, 35:15:1, 35:16:1 and 35:17:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Jeremiah 35:10:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/35.json, the 22 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Rechabites Refuse the Cup of Wine
Jeremiah 35:1-5
This is the word that came: Jeremiah brings “the entire house of the Rechabites” into a chamber and sets “pitchers full of wine and some cups” before them. The date, “in the days of Jehoiakim,” places the scene earlier than the Zedekiah oracles around it. The scene prepares a contrast between the clan's obedience and Judah's.
Jeremiah 35:1
“The word which came - in the days of Jehoiakim - What strange confusion in the placing of these chapters! Who could have expected to hear of Jehoiakim again, whom we have long ago buried; and we have now arrived in the history at the very last year of the last Jewish king. This discourse was probably delivered in the fourth or fifth year of Jehoiakim’s reign.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The house of the Rechabites lived in Judah as a clan of Kenites, and Clarke traces them to the house of Jethro. Barnes notes that the sons named in verse 3 carry names formed with the name of the LORD. They served the God of Israel and lived in tents.
Jeremiah 35:2
“Besides the branch of them associated with Judah and extending to Amalek, there was another section at Kadesh, in Naphtali (Jud 4:11, 17). They seem to have been proselytes of the gate, Jonadab, son of Rechab, whose charge not to drink wine they so strictly obeyed, was zealous for God (2Ki 10:15-23).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 35:2
"No, we will drink no wine; for with us it is against the law." The prophet knew very well they would deny it, and, when they did, urged it no further, for he saw they were stedfastly resolved. Note, Those temptations are of no force with men of confirmed sobriety which yet daily overcome such as, notwithstanding their convictions, are of no resolution in the paths of virtue.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah: This Jeremiah is a different man from the prophet. Barnes takes Jaazaniah as chief of the Rechabites who had fled into Jerusalem. John Gill suggests the gathering was of the men of the clan, which fits the men of the house named in verse 5.
Jeremiah 35:3
“Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah,.... Who was, no doubt, the most famous and leading man in this family: and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; the several branches of the family, especially the males; the women perhaps only excepted; whom it might not be so decent to gather together on such an occasion, to drink wine; or at least offer it to them.”
a chamber occupied by the sons of Hanan: The room belonged to the sons of Hanan, a man of God, and Barnes takes them as his disciples, friendly enough to lend their hall. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that Hanan's standing kept anyone from questioning what was done there. The council chamber of the officials stood next door.
Jeremiah 35:4
“And I brought them into the house of the Lord,.... Into the temple, as he was ordered; that is, he invited them thither, and they came along with him, having, no doubt, a respect for him as a prophet; and the rather, as it is highly probable he came in the name of the Lord to them: into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God; a prophet, as the Targum and Syriac version; and so Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 35:4
“The title man of God, i. e., prophet, belongs to Hanan, identified by many with Hanani 2Ch 16:7. The sons of Hanan were probably his disciples. If so, we find a religious school or sect, regularly established in the precincts of the temple, of whose views and modes of interpretation we know nothing. Plainly however, the Hananites were friendly to Jeremiah, and lent him their hall for his purpose. The chamber of the princes - Probably the council-chamber in which the great officers of state met for the despatch of business.”
pitchers full of wine and some cups: Jeremiah set the wine out in full measure, pitchers for pouring and cups to drink from, as Adam Clarke explains. Matthew Henry notes that the prophet knew the Rechabites would refuse and pressed them no further once they did. The test was staged to be seen.
Jeremiah 35:5
“And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups,.... Which the prophet might have out of the chambers where these vessels were, and particularly from Maaseiah, if he was a keeper of them, as before observed.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 35:5
“Pots full of wine, and cups - The cups were to draw the wine out of the pots, in order to drink it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 35:6-12
The Rechabites answer with their history: “our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab” forbade them wine, houses, fields, and vineyards. They have kept it whole, living “in tents” as he commanded. Their stay in Jerusalem is a wartime refuge, taken “to escape the armies of the Chaldeans and the Arameans.”
Jeremiah 35:6
“The sons of Jonadab, we are told, drank neither wine nor strong drink and dwelled in tents pitched wherever night overtook them. According to the Psalter, they were the first to undergo captivity; for, when the Chaldaeans began to ravage Judah, they were compelled to take refuge in cities.Others may think what they like and follow each his own bent. But to me a town is a prison and solitude paradise. Why do we long for the bustle of cities, we whose very name speaks of loneliness?”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 125.7-8patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 35:6
“We will drink no wine - The reason is given above. Their whole religious and political institution consisted in obedience to three simple precepts, each of which has an appropriate spiritual meaning: - 1. Ye shall drink no wine - Ye shall preserve your bodies in temperance, shall use nothing that would deprive you of the exercise of your sober reason at any time; lest in such a time ye should do what might be prejudicial to yourselves, injurious to your neighbor, or dishonorable to your God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 35:6
“Commands of that nature are to be understood with such limitations. These Rechabites would have tempted God, and not trusted him, if they had not used proper means for their own safety in a time of common calamity, notwithstanding the law and custom of their family.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 35:6
“This case affords no justification for slavish deference to the religious opinions of the Christian fathers: for Jonadab's injunction only affected matters of the present life; moreover, it was not binding on their consciences, for they deemed it not unlawful to go to Jerusalem in the invasion (Jer 35:11).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
you must live in tents all your lives: Each command kept the house of Jonadab free to wander: no house to build, no seed to sow, no vineyard to plant. Barnes explains that wine belongs to a settled life, since a vineyard takes years to grow. The promise of long life echoes the fifth commandment.
Jeremiah 35:7
“Note, Those are in the best frame to meet sufferings who are mortified to the world and life a life of self-denial. (6.) That in general they might learn to live by rule and under discipline. It is good for us all to do so, and to teach our children to do so.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab: The answer stresses completeness: every command, every day of their lives, and every member of the household. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set each of those points against Israel, whose obedience to God failed in all three. To Barnes, father here means their founder.
Jeremiah 35:8
“Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father,.... The above was the charge he gave them; and this, in every article of it, they had carefully and constantly kept, though it had been for the space of three hundred years, or thereabout; as follows: in all he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; which was the first of the precepts he gave them: and which they were now tempted to disregard, but were resolved to observe it, as they had hitherto done.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 35:8
“They had in their respective generations all of them obeyed the voice of Jonadab their father, had done according to all that he commanded them. They drank no wine, though they dwelt in a country where was plenty of it; their wives and children drank no wine, for those that are temperate themselves should take care that all under their charge should be so too.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
we have not owned any vineyards or fields: With no fields or vineyards, the Rechabites could leave at once. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see the wisdom of the command of Jonadab when Nebuchadnezzar came and the clan moved into Jerusalem.
we have lived in tents: The Rechabites say they have lived in tents and obeyed Jonadab in all he commanded, yet they now live in Jerusalem. Gill notes that verse 11 answers this. Henry says that to stay in their tents when the armies came would have been to tempt God.
Chaldean and Aramean raiders came in the days of Jehoiakim, and Henry links them to 2 Kings 24:2, after Jehoiakim rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Barnes takes the Arameans as raiding bands. Henry holds that a strict rule must yield to necessity.
Jeremiah 35:11
“Necessity sets aside all other laws. This is the Rechabites' excuse for their seeming disobedience to Jonadab in temporarily settling in a city. Herein was seen the prescient wisdom of Jonadab's commands; they could at a moment's notice migrate, having no land possessions to tie them.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 35:11
“Note, The rules of a strict discipline must not be made too strict, but so as to admit of a dispensation when the necessity of a case calls for it, which therefore, in making vows of that nature, it is wisdom to provide expressly for, that the way may be made the more clear, and we may not afterwards be forced to say, It was an error, Eccles.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 35:11
“The Syrians - The Septuagint substitutes Assyrians for Syrians, but marauding bands of the Aramaeans are probably meant.”
Jonadab's Sons Obeyed Their Father, but Judah Would Not
the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: The word came after the test had run its course. John Gill places it after the Rechabites had refused the wine and explained their stay in the city. So the answer they gave became the ground of God's charge against Judah.
Jeremiah 35:13-14
The lesson becomes a question for Judah: “Will you not accept discipline and obey My words?” “The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out,” and his sons keep them “to this very day.” The LORD has spoken “again and again” to a people who have not obeyed.
Jeremiah 35:13
“Jeremiah, accompanied by the main body of the Rechabites, went into one of the courts of the temple, and there addressed to the people the rebuke following.”
The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out: Barnes reckons the rule had held over two hundred years. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point to Malachi 1:6 on the honor a son owes his father. Matthew Henry sharpens the contrast: Jonadab was long dead, while God lives to see how his laws are kept.
Jeremiah 35:14
“The words of Jonadab - are performed - but ye hearkened not unto me - The Lord, knowing the fidelity of this people, chose to try them in this way, that he might, by their conscientious obedience to the precepts of their forefathers, show the Jews, to their confusion, their ingratitude to him, and their neglect of his precepts, which if a man do, he shall live by them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 35:15-17
Again and again I have sent: “Again and again I have sent you all My servants the prophets” widens the charge from Jeremiah's own ministry to the whole prophetic line. Verse 17 gives the reason for the coming disaster in the LORD's words: “because I have spoken to them but they have not obeyed.”
Jeremiah 35:15
“In Jer 35:15 and in 2Ch 36:15, a distinct mode of address is alluded to, namely, God sending His servants. I enjoined nothing unreasonable, but simply to serve Me, and I attached to the command a gracious promise, but in vain.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 35:15
“Now, by these words of His, does the Lord clearly show all these points, that there is one King and Lord, the Father of all, of whom He had previously said, "Neither shalt thou swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King;" and that He had from the beginning prepared the marriage for His Son, and used, with the utmost kindness, to call, by the instrumentality of His servants, the men of the former dispensation to the wedding feast; and when they would not obey, He still invited them by sending out other servants, yet that…”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies 4:36.5patristic
Jeremiah 35:15
“Jonadab was long since dead, and was ignorant of them, and could neither take cognizance of their disobedience to his orders nor give correction for it; but God lives for ever, to see how his laws are observed, and is in a readiness to revenge all disobedience.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab carried out the command: The sons of Jonadab obeyed the command of their forefather, while the people of Judah refused to listen to the LORD. Barnes sets one forefather beside all the prophets the LORD had sent again and again. Henry says the Rechabites would rise in judgment against Judah.
all the disaster I have pronounced against them: The chapter moves from evidence to sentence. Adam Clarke reads the Rechabites' conduct as the proof that convicted Judah of ingratitude, with the sentence following. The disaster is the one already pronounced, and the last clause gives the ground: God spoke and called, and Judah neither obeyed nor answered.
Jeremiah 35:17
“I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil - Having, by the conduct of the Rechabites, clearly and fully convicted them of ingratitude and rebellion, he now proceeds to pronounce sentence against them.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 35:18-19
the house of the Rechabites: The LORD promises that “Jonadab son of Rechab will never fail to have a man to stand before Me.” Henry and Gill note that standing before the LORD is language used of priests and faithful servants, here given to a household without land.
The promise has been read in several ways. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take it as sons of Jonadab who would always stand before the LORD. Barnes links standing before the LORD to the Levites in Deuteronomy 10:8, and Clarke records a view that the Essenes were sons of Rechab.
Jeremiah 35:19
“Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... Who has enjoined children obedience to their parents, and has promised to reward it, and does: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever; which may be understood of a long time, of ages to come; or as long as the people of the Jews were a people, or the world should stand, the posterity of this man should continue: or, "a man shall not be cut off from Jonadab &c." (h); his offspring shall never fail.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 35:19
“Travelers bear witness to the existence of a large tribe who represent themselves as the descendants of the Rechabites. The prediction was also literally fulfilled in the Rechabites being in some way incorporated into the tribe of Levi, whose office especially it was to “stand before” Yahweh Deu 10:8.”
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.