Jeremiah 35:6

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: JONADAB ... OUR FATHER - i:e., forefather and director, 300 years before (). They were called Rechabites, not Jonadabites, having received their name from Rechab the father, previously to their adopting the injunctions of Jonadab his son. This case affords no justification for slavish deference to the religious opinions of the Christian fathers; because Jonadab's injunction only affected matters of the present life; moreover, it was not binding on their consciences, because they deemed it not unlawful to go to Jerusalem in the invasion (). What is praised here is not the fathers injunction, but the obedience of the sons...

1-11 Jonadab was famous for wisdom and piety. He lived nearly 300 years before, 2 Kings 10:15. Jonadab charged his posterity not to drink wine. He also appointed them to dwell in tents, or movable dwelling: this would teach them not to think of settling any where in this world. To keep low, would be the way to continue long in the land where they were strangers. Humility and contentment are always the best policy, and men's surest protection. Also, that they might not run into unlawful pleasures, they were to deny themselves even lawful delights. The consideration that we are strangers and pilgrims should oblige us to abstain from all fleshly lusts. Let them have little to lose, and then losing times would be the less dreadful: let them sit loose to what they had, and then they might with less pain be stript of it. Those are in the best frame to meet sufferings who live a life of self-d...

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 neighbour, or dishonourable to your God. 2. _NEITHER SHALL YE BUILD HOUSE_] Ye shall not become residents in any place; ye shall not court earthly possessions; ye shall live free from ambition and from envy, that ye may be free from contention and strife. 3. _BUT-YE SHALL DWELL IN TENTS_] Ye shall imitate your forefather

Wine is the symbol of a settled life, because the vine requires time for its growth and care in its cultivation, while the preparation of the wine itself requires buildings, and it then has to be stored up before it is ready for use. The drink of nomads consists of the milk of their herds. Jeremiah 35:7 STRANGERS - Because not of Jewish blood, though wandering in their territory....

EXPOSITION The third member of this group of short prophecies. In it, Jeremiah points to the faithful obedience of the Rechabites, as putting to shame the infidelity of Judahites. It belongs obviously to the time before the arrival of Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps to the summer of B.C. 606. (See Dr. Plumptre's poem, "The House of the Rechabites," part 2, in 'Lazarus and other Poems.') JEREMIAH 35:2 THE HOUSE OF THE RECHABITES ("house" equivalent to "family"). From a notice in 1 Chronicles 2:55 it appears that the Rechabites were a subdivision of the Kenites, the nomad tribe so closely connected with the Israelites (Judges 1:16;...

BUT THEY SAID, WE WILL DRINK NO WINE,.... Or "we do not drink wine" e; we are not used to it; we never do drink any; it is not lawful for us to do it; nor will we, let who will solicit us: FOR JONADAB THE SON OF RECHAB OUR FATHER; not their immediate father, but their progenitor; perhaps the same Jonadab is meant who lived in the times of Jehu, and rode with him in his chariot; by which it appears he was a man of note and figure, and who lived near three hundred years before this time, 2 Kings 10:15; which is more likely than that he should be a descendant of his, and the proper father of the present Rechabites, which is the opinion of Scaliger f: COMMANDED US, SAYING, YE SHALL DRINK NO WINE, [NEITHER YE], NOR YOUR SONS, FOR EVER; as long as any of them were in the world. What was the reason of this command, and of what follows, is not easy to say; w

CHAPTER 35 The Faithful Rechabites and the Unfaithful Jews _ 1. The command concerning the Rechabites (Jeremiah 35:1) _ 2. The lesson for the Jews (Jeremiah 35:12) The Rechabites were Kenites and were numbered with the children of Israel 1 Chronicles 2:55. During the reign of Jehoiakim the incident of this chapter happened. The critics may rave against the “unchronological” construction of Jeremiah jumping from one period into another, but there we see the guiding hand of the Spirit in the arrangement of these events. It is perfectly in order that this should come next to the chapter which relates the broken covenant. A careful reading and study of this chapter will bring

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....

FOR EVER. unto times age-abiding....

A. The Fidelity of the Rechabites Jeremiah 35:1-11 TRANSLATION (1) The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, (2) Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them to the house of the LORD unto one of the chambers, and offer them wine to drink. (3) And I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites. (4) And I brought them to the house of the LORD, unto the chamber of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which is beside the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold. (5) And I placed before the sons of the house of Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said unto them, Drink wine! (6) And they responded, We do not drin