Jeremiah 35:7

35:1-11 Jonadab was famous for wisdom and piety. He lived nearly 300 years before, 2Ki 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-denial, and who despise the vanities of the world. Jonadab's posterity observed these rules strictly, only using proper means for their safety in a time of general suffering.

Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any,.... That is, they were not to build houses, sow seed, or plant vineyards, for themselves, for their own profit and advantage; nor possess either of these through purchase or gift: all this was enjoined them, partly because they were strangers in the land of Israel, as is suggested in the latter part of the verse, and so were to have no inheritance in it; and partly because the pastoral life was what their ancestors had lived; and therefore Jonadab was desirous it should be continued in his posterity; as well as because by this means they would live not envied by the Israelites, among whom they were; since they did not covet to get any part of their possessions into their hands; as also these being their circumstances, upon any public calamity, as sword, famine, or pestilence, they could more easily remove to other places; and likewise, by observing these rules, would not be liable to some sins, as drunkenness, worldly mindedness, &c. which are often the cause of great calamities.

The Essenes, a sect among the Jews afterwards, seem in some things to have copied after these Rechabites: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; which they could move from place to place, for the convenience of pasture for the cattle, the business they were brought up in, and were always to exercise: that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers; for they were not Israelites, as before observed, but Kenites, the descendants of Jethro; they were proselytes of the gate only; and now, partly on account of their obedience to parents, which had annexed to it the promise of long life in the land in which they lived; and partly because they would, by such a course of life, give no umbrage to, nor raise any jealousy in, the minds of the inhabitants of it, they might expect a continuance in it.

7 . neither shall ye build house, etc .] Cp. the description of the Nabataeans by Diodorus Siculus who says (19:94) that they neither sow seed, nor plant fruit-tree, nor use wine, nor build a house. In their case, however, it was not from religious motives, but to avoid risk at the hands of powerful neighbours. Jeremiah 35:7

The last words of the verse probably give us a reason of the former; they were no native Jews, but strangers amongst them, who commonly are envied when they are observed to thrive too much, or to live splendidly; and that envy of the natives of the place where they sojourn exposeth them to their hatred and malice, so as their lives are made uneasy to them. Jonadab therefore cautions his sons to avoid these inconveniencies by a thrifty, sober, laborious life, to which they had been bred, in keeping flocks, and to avoid any thing might expose them to envy, or hatred, or malice of the people amongst whom they were come to sojourn.

7. tents—(Jud 4:17). live many days—according to the promise connected with the fifth commandment (Ex 20:12; Eph 6:2, 3). strangers—They were not of the stock of Jacob, but sojourners in Israel. Types of the children of God, pilgrims on earth, looking for heaven as their home: having little to lose, so that losing times cost them little alarm; sitting loose to what they have (Heb 10:34; 11:9, 10, 13-16).

There, Jeremiah caused bowls filled with wine to be set before the Rechabites, and commanded them to drink. (גּביעים are large goblets, bowls, out of which drinking-cups [כּסות] were filled.) But they explained that they did not drink wine, because their father, i.e., their ancestor, Jonadab had forbidden them and their posterity to drink wine for ever, as also to build houses, to sow seed, and to plant vineyards, i.e., to settle themselves down in permanent dwellings and to pursue agriculture. ולא יהיה לכם, "And there shall not be to you," sc. what has just been named, i.e., ye must not possess houses, growing-crops, or vineyards (cf. Jeremiah 35:9 ), (Note: These injunctions, given by Jonadab to his posterity, that he might make them always lead a nomad life, are quoted by Diodorus Siculus, xix. 94, as a law among the Nabateans: Νόμος ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς μήτε σίτον σπείρειν, μήτε φυτεύειν μηδὲν φυτὸν καρποφόρον, μήτε οἴνῳ χρῆσθαι, μήτε οἰκίαν κατασεκυάζειν; while the object of the law is stated to have been the maintenance of their freedom against the more powerful who sought to bring them into subjection. And even at the present day the Bedouins imagine that they are prevented, by the nobility of their descent from Ishmael, from engaging in agriculture, handicraft, or the arts; cf. Arvieux, Sitten der Beduinen-Araber, 5f.) but ye are to dwell in tents all your life, that ye may live long, etc. This promise is an imitation of that found in Exodus 20:12.

8 . But thou, thyself , shalt , etc.] The emphatic thou is necessary after the intrusion of the previous v . return ] If this be meant in a spiritual sense, the like does not elsewhere occur in Deut.; but is found in Isaiah 10:21 ; Isaiah 19:22 , Jeremiah 3:1 ; Jeremiah 3:7 ; Jeremiah 3:12 ; Jeremiah 3:22 ; Jeremiah 4:1 ; Jeremiah 15:19 ; Jeremiah 18:11 (= Jeremiah 35:15 ), Jeremiah 23:14 , Jeremiah 24:7 , Jeremiah 36:3 , Ezekiel 18:23 , etc. For the rest of this v erse see above Deuteronomy 15:5 , Deuteronomy 28:1 ; Deuteronomy 28:15 .

6 . The guilt is the greater, because Israel had been warned, but had not listened to the warning. neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets ] A reminiscence of Jeremiah 26:5 ; cf. Jeremiah 7:25 ; Jeremiah 25:4 ; Jeremiah 29:19 ; Jeremiah 35:15 ; Jeremiah 44:4 (all containing the expression ‘my servants the prophets,’ followed by ‘and ye ( or they) hearkened not’). to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land ] The same combination in Jeremiah 44:21 ; cf. ‘our fathers, our kings, and our princes,’ Jeremiah 44:17 : comp. Nehemiah 9:32 ; Nehemiah 9:34 .

In the latter sense sôd occurs in two passages illustrating the present one, Jeremiah 23:18 ; Jeremiah 23:22 , where Jeremiah implies that the true prophets have access to the “council” of Jehovah, and preach the principles which are there approved (cf. Job 15:8 , R.V. marg. ; also Psalm 89:7 ). his servants the prophets ] An expression otherwise used chiefly by writers of the age of Jeremiah ( 2 Kings 17:13 ; 2 Kings 17:23 ; 2 Kings 21:10 ; 2 Kings 24:2 ; Jeremiah 7:25 ; Jeremiah 25:4 ; Jeremiah 26:5 ; Jeremiah 29:19 ; Jeremiah 35:15 ; Ezekiel 38:17 ; also Zechariah 1:6 ; Daniel 9:10 ).