Jeremiah 35

Sons Who Keep a Father's Word

A family that will not drink the wine Jeremiah sets before them, because their ancestor forbade it, becomes the Lord's evidence against a people who will not hear Him.

In the days of Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C. by the Bible Dictionary), while Nebuchadnezzar's army was in the land; the chapter gives no year Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

The chapter is a flashback. It sits among events of Zedekiah's reign (chapters 33–34), but its own first verse places it “in the days of Jehoiakim,” several years earlier, and the…

The chapter is a flashback. It sits among events of Zedekiah's reign (chapters 33–34), but its own first verse places it “in the days of Jehoiakim,” several years earlier, and the book of Jeremiah moves back and forth like this more than once. No year is given. The Rechabites have come into Jerusalem because Nebuchadnezzar's army is in the land, so the scene belongs to the years when Babylon was pressing Jehoiakim (2 Kgs. 24:1–2).

The Rechabites are a clan descended from Jonadab (also spelled Jehonadab) son of Rechab, who generations before had given his family a way of life: no wine, no houses, no fields or vineyards, only tents. Jeremiah is told to bring them into the temple and offer them wine. They refuse, and the refusal is the whole point. The Lord sets their faithfulness to a human ancestor beside Judah's refusal to hear Him, though He has sent prophet after prophet.

The Church's chapter heading says only that “the Rechabites are commended and blessed for their obedience.” The chapter is also one of the places where Jeremiah's Jerusalem touches Lehi's: a family living in tents and honoring a father's commandment, in Jerusalem in the years before Lehi's call (1 Ne. 1:4).

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 35 is an argument from the lesser to the greater. A family keeps a command given by one of its own fathers, and keeps it in the temple, with wine set in front of them.

Jeremiah 35 is an argument from the lesser to the greater. A family keeps a command given by one of its own fathers, and keeps it in the temple, with wine set in front of them. Judah has had the commands of the living God, delivered “rising early,” and has not kept them. The Lord does not say that abstaining from wine is righteous in itself; He says that these people hear a voice and obey it, and that His own people do not.

The chapter then runs in two directions. For Judah, the verdict is that “all the evil that I have pronounced against them” will come (Jer. 35:17). For the Rechabites, the verdict is a promise that Jonadab will never lack a man to stand before the Lord. Obedience and its absence each get a verdict.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–5

The test is set

In plain words

In the days of Jehoiakim the Lord told Jeremiah to go to the Rechabite family, bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the side rooms, and offer them wine. Jeremiah took Jaazaniah, his brothers, all his sons, and the whole family. He brought them to the room of the sons of Hanan, a man of God, next to the princes' room and above the room of Maaseiah the doorkeeper. He set pots full of wine and cups before them and said, “Drink.”

1 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,

Context #

A flashback to Jehoiakim's reign

This scene belongs to Jehoiakim's reign, before the chapters on either side of it, which are set under Zedekiah.

This scene belongs to Jehoiakim's reign, before the chapters on either side of it, which are set under Zedekiah. The text itself fixes the order: Jehoiakim was king before Zedekiah, so the chapter “goes back in time,” one of several such flashbacks in the book. The Bible Dictionary's dates put Jehoiakim at 608–597 B.C.

Beyond that the chapter gives no year. What it does give is the situation: Nebuchadnezzar's army is in the land (Jer. 35:11). Jehoiakim “became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him,” and the Lord then sent raiding bands against Judah (2 Kgs. 24:1–2). The next chapter, by contrast, is dated to “the fourth year of Jehoiakim” (Jer. 36:1); this one carries no such date.

Sources: Jeremiah 35: The Rechabites, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 164. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.

Context #

Who the Rechabites were

The Rechabites were a clan descended from Rechab through Jonadab (Jehonadab), and the Old Testament says little more.

The Rechabites were a clan descended from Rechab through Jonadab (Jehonadab), and the Old Testament says little more. Jonadab appears once in narrative, in the ninth century B.C., when Jehu meets him on the road, asks, “Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?” and takes him up into his chariot (2 Kgs. 10:15–23). The only other glimpses are a genealogical note that the “house of Rechab” belonged to the Kenites (1 Chr. 2:55), the clan of “Moses' father in law” who settled in Judah's wilderness (Judg. 1:16), and a Malchiah son of Rechab who repaired the Dung Gate in Nehemiah's day (Neh. 3:14); the text does not say whether he belongs to this family.

How the group began “is obscure; some have called it ‘a mystery.’” The Kenite link comes from one verse in a genealogy and should be held loosely. What Jeremiah 35 itself shows is a family that kept Jonadab's way of life “unto this day” (Jer. 35:14) and was known for it.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeffrey P. Thompson and John W. Welch, “The Rechabites: A Model Group in Lehi’s World”, In Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 611–24.

Context #

An offer of wine

The offer of wine is a test of the family's loyalty, not a charge against them, and it is not a lesson about wine.

The offer of wine is a test of the family's loyalty, not a charge against them, and it is not a lesson about wine. Nothing in the chapter condemns drinking; the Lord never tells the Rechabites to drink, and He never criticizes them for refusing. Abstaining from wine was not general among Israel: only a few people are identified as doing so, such as priests on duty (Lev. 10:9) and Nazarites (Num. 6:3), and the practice “was viewed as somewhat peculiar.”

The Rechabites' rules were a family tradition, not a law of the Lord: “These traditions were not part of their religion, but they followed the rules and traditions very faithfully. The Lord used these people as an object lesson.” The point is the faithfulness, not the particular rules, and the next verses make that explicit.

Sources: Jeffrey P. Thompson and John W. Welch, “The Rechabites: A Model Group in Lehi’s World”, In Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 611–24. Jeremiah 35: The Rechabites, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 164. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;

4 And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:

Context #

The chamber in the temple

The room was one of the side buildings around the temple courts, and almost nothing is known about the men named in connection with it.

The room was one of the side buildings around the temple courts, and almost nothing is known about the men named in connection with it. Hanan is called “a man of God,” a title given to prophets (compare Shemaiah in 1 Kgs. 12:22). Maaseiah son of Shallum was “keeper of the door,” and the princes' chamber, where the people's leaders used to assemble, was next to his. Jaazaniah is a Rechabite, not the prophet's relative: Jeremiah himself is the son of Hilkiah (Jer. 1:1). He was “probably” the head of the clan. These are one reading, resting on the verse's wording; nothing further is known of Hanan.

Why the temple? The text says only that Jeremiah brought them there at the Lord's command, so the test took place in the house of the Lord.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

5 And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.

Verses 6–11

“We will drink no wine”

In plain words

They answered, “We will drink no wine, because Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, commanded us: no wine for you or your sons, ever; no building houses, no sowing seed, no planting vineyards, no owning any of it, but living all your days in tents, so that you may live long in the land where you are strangers. We have obeyed Jonadab in everything, we and our wives and sons and daughters. We have no houses, vineyards, fields, or crops; we have lived in tents and done all he commanded. Only when Nebuchadnezzar came into the land did we say, ‘Come, let us go to Jerusalem, away from the armies of the Chaldeans and the Syrians.’ So we are living in Jerusalem.”

6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:

7 Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.

Context #

Tents, no vineyards, no fields

Jonadab's command ruled out a settled life: no wine, no houses, no sowing, no vineyards, and “all your days ye shall dwell in tents.”

Jonadab's command ruled out a settled life: no wine, no houses, no sowing, no vineyards, and “all your days ye shall dwell in tents.” The promise attached to it was “that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.” The Hebrew word behind “strangers” is a participle glossed “sojourning.”

Why did Jonadab give the command? The text does not say. One reading is that Jonadab laid the obligation on them “to keep them in the simplicity of nomad life observed by their fathers, and to preserve them from the corrupting influences connected with a settled life.” That is an inference from the rule, not something stated in Jeremiah, and the reason is not known: “We do not know why the Rechabites chose to live away from major towns or cities.” The chapter needs only the fact of the rule and the family's loyalty to it.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Jeffrey P. Thompson and John W. Welch, “The Rechabites: A Model Group in Lehi’s World”, In Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 611–24. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.

Related Scriptures #

Tents in Lehi's Jerusalem

A family living in tents and keeping a father's commandment overlaps with the Book of Mormon's opening scenes, and some Latter-day Saint writers have noticed it.

A family living in tents and keeping a father's commandment overlaps with the Book of Mormon's opening scenes, and some Latter-day Saint writers have noticed it. Nephi says again and again that “my father dwelt in a tent” (1 Ne. 2:15; also 1 Ne. 9:1; 1 Ne. 10:16; 1 Ne. 16:6), and Lehi's family spent about eight years in the wilderness (1 Ne. 17:4). One study judges it “reasonable to surmise” that Lehi's group “may have modeled their behavior in certain respects” on the Rechabites, who lived in or near Jerusalem at the same time, and says the two groups “could have known each other.” That is a plausible suggestion, not something either text states.

Later Jewish tradition goes further. Because of the promise in verse 19, “many Jewish traditions presume that the Rechabites (like Lehi) fled Jerusalem before it was destroyed by Babylon.” The fullest of these texts, the History of the Rechabites (also called the Narrative of Zosimus), has portions that appear to be later Christian additions, and whether such lore “has any historical connection with Lehi” “remains uncertain.” Jeremiah 35 itself says nothing of a departure; it shows the Rechabites in Jerusalem in a time of war.

Sources: Jeffrey P. Thompson and John W. Welch, “The Rechabites: A Model Group in Lehi’s World”, In Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 611–24. Scripture Central, “Why Are Lehi’s and Nephi’s Visions and Histories Similar to the History of the Rechabites?”, KnoWhy #710. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

8 Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters;

9 Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

10 But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

11 But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem.

Context #

Why they were in Jerusalem

The Rechabites left the countryside for the city because armies were in the land, not because they had given up their way of life.

The Rechabites left the countryside for the city because armies were in the land, not because they had given up their way of life. They say so themselves: “Come, and let us go to Jerusalem.” Nebuchadrezzar here is the king named Nebuchadnezzar in 2 Kgs. 24:1; the KJV spells the name both ways.

The Hebrew for “Syrians” here is Aram, the Arameans. They appear in the account of Jehoiakim's reign: after he rebelled, “the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon” (2 Kgs. 24:2). The Rechabites name both armies as what they feared.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 12–17

The word to Judah

In plain words

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Tell the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not take instruction and listen to my words? Jonadab's command to his sons not to drink wine has been kept; to this day they drink none, because they obey their father. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you have not listened. I sent all my servants the prophets, again and again, saying, Turn from your evil ways, mend your doings, do not go after other gods, and you will live in the land I gave you and your fathers. But you have not listened. The sons of Jonadab have kept their father's command; this people has not listened to me. Therefore I will bring on Judah and Jerusalem all the evil I pronounced against them, because I spoke and they did not hear, I called and they did not answer.’”

12 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,

13 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the LORD.

Context #

The argument from the lesser to the greater

The Lord holds up the Rechabites as a model: a family obeys an ancestor's word, and Judah will not obey God's.

The Lord holds up the Rechabites as a model: a family obeys an ancestor's word, and Judah will not obey God's. “The Rechabites observed their covenants faithfully, even though they were not the covenant people of the Lord. The Jews were transgressors of the Lord's commands and broke their promises to God at every turn.” Put another way, “the Rechabites faithfully keep human traditions, but the people of Judah cannot keep the commandments of a living God—commandments that have real and eternal blessings attached to them.”

The two descriptions of what the Rechabites held (covenants in one, traditions in the other) differ in wording, and the chapter itself calls it a “commandment” of their father (Jer. 35:14). It does not say that the Rechabites made a covenant with the Lord. What it does show is an unbroken family obedience, kept for generations and tested in public, set against a people who have not “inclined” their ear.

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Jeremiah 35: The Rechabites, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 164.

14 The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me.

Language #

The Lord rises early

“Rising early and speaking” is a Hebrew idiom for doing something early and often, and in Jeremiah it is used especially of the Lord.

“Rising early and speaking” is a Hebrew idiom for doing something early and often, and in Jeremiah it is used especially of the Lord. The verb (shakam) properly means to start early, “load backs of beasts for day's journey,” and the form used here, hashkem joined to “speaking,” means “speaking early and often.” The same idiom with “sending” describes the prophets: “I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them” (verse 15; compare Jer. 25:3–4).

The picture is of an early start, repeated. The Chronicler gives the motive behind the same idiom: the Lord “sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people” (2 Chr. 36:15). So the Lord's persistence is mercy, and that is why Judah's refusal is serious. A family obeys a father who commanded them once, long ago; the Lord has spoken early and often.

15 I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.

16 Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people hath not hearkened unto me:

17 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they have not answered.

Verses 18–19

The promise to the Rechabites

In plain words

Jeremiah then said to the Rechabites: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have obeyed your father Jonadab's command, kept all his rules, and done all he told you, Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a man to stand before me.”

18 And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you:

19 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

Related Scriptures #

A man to stand before me

“Shall not want a man” is the language the Lord uses for His promises to David's line and to the priests.

“Shall not want a man” is the language the Lord uses for His promises to David's line and to the priests. The same Hebrew idiom, rendered “shall not fail” in 1 Kgs. 2:4, is used for David's line and, in Jeremiah, for David's throne and for the Levitical priests who stand before the Lord (Jer. 33:17–18). The Lord gives Jonadab's family the same kind of promise: someone from this house will always be in His presence.

To “stand before” someone, with this Hebrew verb, is to attend upon him as his servant; prophets such as Elijah “stand before” the Lord (1 Kgs. 17:1). One reading is that it points to the family's continuing in the Lord's service, “without, of course, involving sacerdotal service”; the text does not make the Rechabites priests. Verse 19 does not say how or where the promise will be kept. The promise rests on the family's obedience, as the “Because” of verse 18 shows.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 35

The speaker throughout the chapter is “the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,” and in the Old Testament “the Lord” usually means Jehovah, who is the premortal Jesus Christ (Mosiah 3:8). So the One who rises early and sends prophet after prophet, and who is not heard, is Christ. The Gospels show the same voice in the same city: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37). Both passages speak of the Lord's calling and the people's refusal.

Worth exploring next

Read Jer. 36 next, which tells how Jeremiah's words were written down in the same reign and what the king did with them. For the promise language of verse 19, compare Jer. 33:17–18 and 1 Kgs. 2:4. For the Book of Mormon's tents and wilderness, read 1 Ne. 2 and 1 Ne. 16:6–10. For the Lord's urgency in sending prophets, see Jer. 7:25 and 2 Chr. 36:15–16.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jeremiah 35: The Rechabites, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 164.
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
Jeffrey P. Thompson and John W. Welch, “The Rechabites: A Model Group in Lehi’s World”, In Glimpses of Lehi’s Jerusalem, ed. John W. Welch, David Rolph Seely, and Jo Ann H. Seely (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2004), 611–24.
Scripture Central, “Why Are Lehi’s and Nephi’s Visions and Histories Similar to the History of the Rechabites?”, KnoWhy #710.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
“Jehovah”, Guide to the Scriptures.

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