Jeremiah 35
Jeremiah 35 steps back in time. The events fall in the days of Jehoiakim, before the final siege, when Babylon's armies had already begun to press on the land and country people were fleeing into Jerusalem for safety. Among those who took refuge in the city was a clan called the Rechabites, and the LORD chose them to teach His people something they would not learn from words alone. At His command Jeremiah brings the whole family into a chamber of the temple, sets pots full of wine and cups before them, and issues a plain invitation: Drink ye wine (v. 5). It is a test, staged in the most public and sacred place in the nation, and the answer the Rechabites give will become a mirror held up to all of Judah.3
They refuse - and their refusal is not rudeness or scruple but loyalty. 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 (v. 6). Jonadab, an ancestor from generations back, had laid on his descendants a whole way of life: drink no wine, build no house, sow no seed, plant no vineyard, but dwell in tents all your days. And they had kept it - not for a season, not until it grew inconvenient, but all our days, we and our wives, our sons, nor our daughters (v. 8). The command itself was their reason; that their father had spoken it was enough. The chapter does not hold up the rule as the point. It holds up the faithfulness - an obedience that ran unbroken down the generations.
Then the LORD turns the scene into His own word against Judah: The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab… are performed… but I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me (v. 14). The contrast is devastating in its simplicity. A family kept the command of a man who had been dead for centuries; the covenant people would not keep the command of the living God who never stopped speaking to them. Obedient outsiders against a disobedient household of faith. And the chapter ends where such loyalty deserves to end - not in ruin but in reward: to the faithful house the LORD pledges that Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever (v. 19).1
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Jeremiah 35:1-11We Will Drink No Wine
1The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, 2Go 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. 3Then 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; 4And 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: 5And 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. 6But 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: 7Neither 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. 8Thus 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; 9Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: 10But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 11But 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.
The word comes to Jeremiah in the days of Jehoiakim (v. 1), some years before the final fall of the city - a reminder that the chapters of this book are not laid out in strict order, and the LORD has gone back to retrieve an earlier scene because of what it teaches. The instruction is unusual: Go unto the house of the Rechabites… and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink (v. 2). Jeremiah obeys to the letter, naming the men he gathers - Jaazaniah and his brethren and sons, the whole house of the Rechabites (v. 3) - and the very chamber he leads them to, a side room in the temple complex near the quarters of the officials and the keeper of the door (v. 4). The care with which the place is described matters: this test is not staged in private but in the most sacred and public building in the nation, the house of the LORD itself. And then the offer: 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 (v. 5). It looks, on its face, like a temptation. It is in fact a demonstration - and the prophet already knows how it will turn out.3
The answer is immediate and complete: 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 (v. 6). Notice what they do not say. They do not weigh whether the prophet's invitation overrides the old rule, nor whether one cup in a temple chamber could really do any harm, nor whether a later generation might be free to choose differently. The command itself is the whole of their reason: our father commanded us. Jonadab had given them more than a rule about wine; he had laid out an entire way of life - Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard… but all your days ye shall dwell in tents (v. 7). It was the discipline of the wanderer: own little, settle nowhere, stay free of the entanglements and softening habits of the towns, that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers. Whatever Jonadab's reasons were, the descendants do not relitigate them. They received the charge as a trust to be kept, not a proposal to be reconsidered. There is a kind of faithfulness that does not need every command re-justified before it will obey - and here it stands, embodied in a whole family.
Hear how thoroughly they have kept it: 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 (v. 8). The list is sweeping - the men, the women, the sons, the daughters - not a single member of the household exempted, and not for a stretch but all our days. They itemize their fidelity point by point: no wine, no houses, no vineyard, no field, no seed; but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us (vv. 9-10). The word done is the one to mark. It is not enough, in their telling, to have agreed with the command or admired it; they have done it. And the obedience is multi-generational by its very nature - Jonadab was no recent father but an ancestor from generations past, and the people standing in the temple are keeping a charge laid on a great-grandparent. This is the steady, unspectacular faithfulness that is hardest of all to sustain: not the heroism of a single dramatic choice, but the quiet keeping of a word year after year, handed down a household intact.
One detail keeps the Rechabites from looking like rigid literalists who would die for a rule before they would think. They explain why, just now, they are living inside Jerusalem's walls instead of in their tents: when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land… we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans… so we dwell at Jerusalem (v. 11). Their forefather had told them to dwell in tents; the advance of an imperial army made the open country deadly, and they took shelter in the city to stay alive. They had not abandoned the charge - they were in the city only under duress, with every intention of returning to the old way once the danger passed. The point is quietly important. Their obedience was wholehearted but not senseless; faithfulness to Jonadab's spirit, which was that they should live many days (v. 7), did not require them to walk into a slaughter for the sake of the letter. It is exactly this combination - settled, lifelong loyalty held with sober judgment - that makes their example so weighty when the LORD turns it against His people in the verses to come.
Jeremiah 35:12-17But Ye Hearkened Not Unto Me
12Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, 13Thus 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. 14The 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. 15I 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. 16Because 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: 17Therefore 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.
Now the LORD says aloud what the staged scene was always for. The word comes to Jeremiah, and through him to the whole nation: Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? (v. 13). The question is not really seeking information; it is a summons and a grief at once. The Rechabites have just shown, in front of everyone, what it looks like to receive a word and keep it. The LORD turns from that living example straight to His people and asks why they will not do the same. The word instruction carries the sense of correction a parent gives a child - teaching meant to be taken in and acted on. Judah has had instruction in abundance; what they have refused is to receive it, to let it land and change the way they live. The whole indictment that follows hangs on this opening question. It exposes the difference between two kinds of hearers in the sharpest possible terms: a family of strangers who took a father's word to heart, and a covenant people who would not take their God's.
The heart of the lesson is laid bare in verse 14: The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab… 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. The contrast could not be drawn more starkly. On one side stands a single command, given once by a mortal man long dead, and performed faithfully to this very day. On the other stands the living God, who has not spoken once but again and again - rising early and speaking - and has been met with silence. That phrase, rising early and speaking, runs all through Jeremiah's book; it pictures the LORD like one who gets up at dawn, eager, persistent, unwilling to give up on a wayward people, sending word after word. The pathos of it is almost unbearable: the God of all the earth has been more diligent in pleading with Judah than Jonadab ever was in charging his sons - and the sons obeyed, while Judah did not. A dead father's single word outweighed, in practice, the living God's lifelong appeal. That is the wound the chapter presses on.3
Verse 15 widens the indictment to take in the whole history of God's patience: 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… but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me. This is not a sudden verdict on a single generation; it is the long story of centuries. The LORD did not leave His people to guess at His will. He sent prophet after prophet - all my servants the prophets - with a message simple enough for anyone to act on: turn, amend, do not chase other gods, and you shall keep the land. The way back was always open, the terms always plain, the messengers always coming. And the response, generation upon generation, was to not incline the ear. The phrase is vivid: not even the small movement of turning the head to listen. Set this beside the Rechabites and the asymmetry is total. They needed no chain of messengers, no repeated pleading; one charge from their father held them for generations. Judah had the messengers, had the pleading, had the open door - and would not so much as lean in to hear. The longer God's patience ran, the heavier their refusal grew.
Verses 16 and 17 bring the lesson to its hard conclusion. First the contrast is stated one final time, flatly, as the ground of what follows: Because the sons of Jonadab… have performed the commandment of their father… but this people hath not hearkened unto me (v. 16). Then the verdict: Therefore… 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 (v. 17). The judgment is not arbitrary cruelty; it is named as the direct consequence of a settled refusal to listen. Twice the reason is given, and both times it is the same: they have not heard… they have not answered. God spoke; they would not hear. God called; they would not answer. The disaster about to fall on Jerusalem is, at bottom, the harvest of a deafness chosen and maintained over generations. And the Rechabites stand silently through it all as the living proof that obedience was possible - that the problem was never that God's word could not be kept, only that His people would not keep it.
Jeremiah 35:18-19The Blessing on a Faithful House
18And 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: 19Therefore 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.
The chapter does not end in judgment. It ends in blessing - and the blessing falls on the obedient. Jeremiah turns from the doomed nation to the faithful clan and speaks a word over them: 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 (v. 18). Every verb of faithfulness is gathered up one last time - obeyed… kept… done - the same threefold pattern of hearing that issues in action. And then the reward: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever (v. 19). The phrase to stand before me is the language of service in God's presence; it is said of those who minister to Him, who attend Him as honored servants. The promise is that this family will never die out, never lack a descendant who serves the LORD - an enduring line, a house that continues. There is a deep irony folded into the wording. Judah, the people of the covenant, are about to lose their land, their temple, their place before God; the Rechabites, outsiders who simply kept faith, are promised a standing before Him that never ends. The covenant household is scattered; the faithful household is established. Obedience, the chapter says with its final breath, secures what nothing else can.
It is worth weighing what the LORD does and does not commend here. He does not adopt Jonadab's rules as His own law; nowhere does Scripture command God's people to abstain from wine or to live in tents. The way of the Rechabites was Jonadab's charge to his house, not a divine decree binding on everyone. What the LORD honors is not the content of the rule but the faithfulness with which it was kept - the wholehearted, generations-long loyalty to a father's word. That is the quality being held up for all Judah to see, and the quality the blessing rewards. And the blessing is fitted to the virtue: a family that honored their father across the generations is given a future across the generations - shall not want a man… for ever. Those who keep faith down the years are met by a God who keeps faith down the years. The reward is not the removal of hardship; the Rechabites still face the same Babylonian threat that drove them into the city. It is something steadier than relief: the assurance that their line, and their place before God, will stand. What they gave - faithfulness over time - is exactly what they receive.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Jeremiah 35 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for the word mitzvah (vv. 14, 16, 18, the “commandment” of Jonadab the Rechabites keep), for the verb shama behind “hearken” / “obey” (vv. 8, 14, 16), and for the family name Rechabim (the house of Rechab).
- Jeremiah 35 ↔ Matthew 7 · John 14 · Philippians 2Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Jeremiah 35 to the rest of Scripture - the hearing-and-doing test of verses 14-16 read alongside the wise and foolish builders of Matthew 7:24-27, and the obedience the LORD honors here read beside If ye love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15) and the obedience of Christ unto death (Phil. 2:8).
- Jeremiah 35 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Jeremiah 35 - the historical setting in the reign of Jehoiakim and the Babylonian incursion that drove the Rechabites into Jerusalem (vv. 1, 11), the identity of Jonadab son of Rechab and the way of life he laid on his house (vv. 6-10), and the much-discussed idiom “rising early and speaking” for the LORD's persistent appeals through the prophets (v. 14).
Where this echoes in Scripture
We Will Drink No Wine
- Matthew 7:24-27Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.The hearing-and-doing test the whole chapter dramatizes - the Rechabites the wise builders, Judah the house on the sand.
- 2 Kings 10:15-16when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab... Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.Jonadab the son of Rechab himself - the ancestor whose charge (vv. 6-10) the family still keeps generations later.
- Deuteronomy 6:4-6Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD... And these words... shall be in thine heart.The hearing (shama, v. 8) that was meant to become love and obedience - the very thing Judah failed to do.
- Luke 6:46And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?The Lord’s rebuke to hearing without doing - the gap the Rechabites’ example exposes in Judah.
- 1 Samuel 15:22Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.The principle behind the whole scene - that the LORD prizes obedience above outward religion.
But Ye Hearkened Not Unto Me
- Jeremiah 7:25-26I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto me.The same charge as verses 14-15 - the LORD’s tireless sending of prophets met with a refusal to hear.
- 2 Chronicles 36:15-16And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes... but they mocked the messengers of God.The whole tragic pattern of verse 15 - persistent appeal, persistent refusal, until there was no remedy.
- Isaiah 65:12when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes.The very words of the verdict in verse 17 - the LORD called and spoke, and was met with silence.
- Zechariah 7:11-13they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears... Therefore... they cried, and I would not hear.The deafness condemned in verses 14-17 - a people who would not incline the ear to God’s repeated word.
- Hebrews 12:25See that ye refuse not him that speaketh... if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape.The abiding warning of this section - the peril of refusing the One who keeps on speaking.
The Blessing on a Faithful House
- John 14:15If ye love me, keep my commandments.The measure of love the whole chapter dramatizes - obedience as the proof, not the price, of loving God.
- Philippians 2:8he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.The obedience that surpasses the Rechabites’ - the Son’s loyalty to the Father carried all the way to the cross.
- Exodus 20:12Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land.The honoring of a father across generations (v. 18) - rewarded here, as the commandment promises, with an enduring future.
- Hebrews 3:6but Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence... firm unto the end.The enduring house of verse 19 fulfilled - a household that stands for ever in the faithful Son.
- Matthew 25:21Well done, thou good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy lord.The pattern of verses 18-19 - faithfulness kept over time, met at the last with the Master’s reward.