Jeremiah 35

Family that drank no wine

Jeremiah meets wine-free family

1The LORD sent a message to Jeremiah when King Jehoiakim, [1] son of Josiah, ruled Judah:

2Go to the Rechab [2] families and tell them you would like to meet with them in one of the rooms [3] outside the Jerusalem Temple sanctuary. When they get there, I want you to offer them some wine.

3So I took all the men in the families to the Temple. I took Jaazaniah, who was the son of Jeremiah and the grandson of Habazziniah. And I took his brothers, his sons, and all the men in the families. 4I took them upstairs to a room assigned to the family of an important spiritual leader, Hanan [4] son of Igdaliah. The room was next to one assigned to Temple officials, above a room assigned to a priest and Temple gatekeeper named Maaseiah, son of Shallum. He was one of the top officials at the Temple.

Jeremiah offers wine to the family

5I set some pitchers of wine on the table alongside some cups. I told the Rechab men, “Help yourself to some wine. Enjoy.”

6They said, “We can't do that. Our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab ordered us not to do that. He said ‘Don’t ever drink wine. This includes your children, 7and everyone else in your family, from now on. Also, don't ever build yourself a house, plant crops, or grow a vineyard. Don’t even buy a vineyard as an investment. You should live in tents from now on. Do this and you will be able to stay in this land for a long time.’

8We obeyed the order of our ancestor Jonadab, son of Rechab. We did everything he told us to do. We don’t drink wine. No one in our family does. That includes our wives, our sons, and our daughters. 9We haven’t built houses. We don't have any vineyards or farmland. We don't even have any seeds to plant. 10We have lived in tents all our life. We obeyed everything Jonadab told us to do.

11We made one exception, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land. We decided to come here to Jerusalem for protection behind the city walls. We came here to escape the invading army. That's why we’re living in Jerusalem now.”

God’s message to the disobedient Israelites

12The Lord gave Jeremiah another message. 13The Lord of everyone and the God of Israel told Jeremiah to go to the citizens of Jerusalem and to the people of Judah and say:

Will you people ever learn your lesson and start obeying my instructions? 14Jonadab, son of Rechab, told his family to never drink wine. They obeyed him. To this day, they still refuse to drink wine. And what have you done with my instructions? You have persistently disobeyed.

15I have sent my messengers, the prophets, to give you my instructions. I had them tell you to stop living such an evil life. They told you to change the way you live. They told you to stop worshiping other gods. And they assured you that if you obey, you’ll be able to continue living in this land I gave your ancestors. But you ignored them, and you disobeyed me. 16These descendants of Jonadab, son of Rechab, did what their ancestor told them. But my people refused to do what I told them.

Payday for the wages of sin

17So, I the LORD of everyone and the God of Israel tell you this. I'm going to clobber Judah and all the people in Jerusalem with every disaster [5] I ever warned would happen if you continue to disobey me. I have spoken to you, and you didn't pay any attention. I have called out to you, and you ignored me.

18This message is for the Rechab families. I am the LORD of everyone and the God of Israel. And I'm telling you that since you have obeyed the instructions of your ancestor Jonadab, 19you will always have a descendant who serves me. Yours is a family that will continue into the generations to come. [6]

Footnotes

Intro Notes to Jeremiah

135:1

Jehoiakim ruled Judah from about 609-598 BC, a little more than a decade before the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and other walled cities throughout Judah. This story seems set near the end of Jehoiakim’s reign, perhaps when Babylonian raiders were harassing the territory. That may explain why the Rechab family of nomads moved to Jerusalem for protection. The city walls were huge, and the Israelite army was concentrated there to protect Judah’s largest city and the royal family.

235:2

The Rechab families weren’t Israelites, it seems. They were immigrants, “resident aliens.” They were also a clan, an extended family of Kenites—nomadic herders, according to a fleeting reference in 1 Chronicles 2:55. “Kenites were a community of people descended from the father-in-law of Moses…. The Kenites eventually settled in with local Amalekites who lived in and around the Negev city of Arad” (Judges 1:16). Arad was a desert town about 35 miles (55 km) south of Jerusalem.

335:2

Only priests were allowed inside the Temple sanctuary. But there were many rooms attached to the outside walls of the Temple building. These ground-level and upper-story rooms became meeting rooms, temporary living quarters, and storage rooms.

435:4

All the Bible writers say about Hanan is what we read here. He was a “man of God.” That’s a phrase Bible writers often reserved for religious leaders, usually to prophets.

535:17

For a list of Moses’s warnings for disobedience and blessings for obedience, see Deuteronomy 28.

635:19

It’s unclear whatever became of the Rechab family. Many people who rushed to Jerusalem for protection from the invaders were killed in the battle and the aftermath. Most of the survivors were likely taken captive to Babylon, in what is now Iraq.