Jeremiah 35:1-19

Jeremiah 35. A Lesson in Obedience from the Rechabites. These were the descendants of that Jonadab who, in 842, aided Jehu to overthrow the house of Ahab and the cult of Baal of Tyre (2 Kings 10:15 *); they were connected with the Kenites (1 Chronicles 2:55), from whom the worship of Yahweh may have passed to Israel (cf. Judges 1:16). The incident here described is to be dated c. 598 (cf. Jeremiah 35:11 with 2 Kings 24:2), i.e. after the events of Jeremiah 36.

Jeremiah 35:1. Jeremiah is told to bring the family (house) of the Rechabites into one of the rooms (cf. Jeremiah 36:12; Ezekiel 40:17, etc.) erected round the Temple courts, and to offer them wine, which he does. They reply that it is an ancestral rule with them to drink no wine, and to dwell in tents, having no share in vine-culture, agriculture, or housebuilding (i.e. they are loyal to the nomadic tradition; the civilisation of Canaan, involving the cult of the Baalim, they regard as an influence corrupting the true worship of the desert God, Yahweh, see pp. 74, 85, 87, 2 Kings 10:15 f.*). The Rechabites explain their (exceptional) presence in Jerusalem as due to flight before the invaders.

Jeremiah 35:2. The incident takes place in the Temple, in order to give it publicity and solemnity.

Jeremiah 35:4. the keeper of the door: Jeremiah 52:24, where three of these high officials are named after the second priest.

Jeremiah 35:12. Jeremiah proceeds to contrast the loyal obedience of the Rechabites to the commands of Jonadab with the disobedience of Judah and Jerusalem generally to the commands of Yahweh Himself, given through a line of prophets (Jeremiah 18:11; Jeremiah 25:5 f.); hence the coming punishment. To the Rechabites is guaranteed the continuance of their line (Jeremiah 35:19; cf. Jeremiah 33:17) as servants of Yahweh.

Jeremiah 35:14. I is emphatic.

Jeremiah 35:19. stand before me: see on Jeremiah 15:19.