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.

Ver. 2. Go unto the house of the Rechabites.] So called of one Rechab, the father of, Jonadab, who was famous for his piety in Jehu's days, 2Ki 10:15 three hundred years at least before this prophecy of Jeremiah. They were of the posterity of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, and lived up and down in the land upon their employments, weaned from the world, and exercising themselves in the law of God. See 1 Chronicles 2:55, where they are called the "families of the scribes that dwelt at Jabez," as being men learned in the laws of God. Of them came the Essenes, a studious and abstemious sect among the Jews; and they might better than those Donatists have taken to themselves the title of Apotactici, so called from their renouncing the world.

And give them wine to drink.] Heb., Make them drink wine - i.e., set it before them, and then leave them to their own liberty.

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