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Jeremiah 35

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 35 of 52•19 verses

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Jeremiah 35 Overview

Jeremiah tests the Rechabites by offering them wine; they refuse because of their ancestor Jonadab’s command, and God uses their family obedience to shame Judah’s persistent refusal to heed repeated prophetic commands.

JeremiahBook

35Chapter

19Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 35

Coming from

During Babylon’s siege Zedekiah and Jerusalem temporarily obey the law by freeing Hebrew servants, then reverse course and enslave them again; the LORD declares this covenant betrayal will bring sword, pestilence, famine, and captivity.

In this chapter

Leads into

Jeremiah dictates his prophecies to Baruch, who reads the scroll publicly; King Jehoiakim cuts and burns it piece by piece, but Jeremiah dictates a replacement scroll with additional words and announces judgment on the king.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The Rechabites’ abstinence is not introduced as a universal law. Their consistency becomes an object lesson in contrast with Judah’s disobedience.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 35 is the chapter’s own movement: human obedience can expose spiritual inconsistency. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Human obedience can expose spiritual inconsistency

The Rechabites honor an ancestral command while Judah ignores the LORD.

Repeated revelation increases accountability

God has sent prophets rising early and speaking, but Judah refuses to listen.

Faithfulness in a family tradition can be honored when it does not oppose God

The Rechabites receive a promise because they faithfully kept their father’s command.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 10:15-23

Jonadab son of Rechab appears as an ally of Jehu in the purge of Baal worship.

Jeremiah 7:25-26

Jeremiah repeatedly uses the phrase about God sending prophets early, emphasizing long-term refusal.

Ephesians 6:1-3

The New Testament affirms honoring parental authority while always placing it under the Lord.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not make abstaining from wine the main universal doctrine of the chapter.

The text praises the Rechabites’ obedience to their family rule and contrasts it with Judah’s disobedience to God.

Do not elevate family tradition above Scripture.

The lesson works because their tradition did not contradict God’s commands.

Read Jeremiah 35 watching for…

the invitation to drink wine

the Rechabite refusal

Jonadab’s ancestral command

the contrast with Judah

the promise to the Rechabite line

Chapter outline2 sections

1-11The Rechabites refuse wine in obedience to their father’s command 12-19Their obedience rebukes Judah’s disobedience, and Jonadab’s line receives a promise

The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,

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.

Then 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;

And 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:

And 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.

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:

Neither 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.

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;

Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

But 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.

Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,

Thus 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.

The 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.

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, 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.

Because 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:

Therefore 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.

And 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:

Therefore 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.

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Jeremiah 35:3

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