You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, or have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you live as nomads.’ We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters; and not to build houses for ourselves to dwell in. We have no vineyard, field, or seed;
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Jeremiah 35:7-9 sits inside this longer paragraph.
But they said, “We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, forever. You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, or have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you live as nomads.’ We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters; and not to build houses for ourselves to dwell in. We have no vineyard, field, or seed; but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, ‘Come! Let’s go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we will dwell at Jerusalem.’ ”
Parallel Translations
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You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, or have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you live as nomads.’
We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters;
and not to build houses for ourselves to dwell in. We have no vineyard, field, or seed;
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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:
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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 wherein ye sojourn.
And we have hearkened to the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he 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 to have vineyard, or field, or seed;
Cross-references (20)
- Colossians 3:20 (v8) Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.
- 1 Timothy 6:6 (v9) But godliness with contentment is great gain.
- Psalms 37:16 (v9) Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked.
- Proverbs 1:8-9 (v8) My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching: for they will be a garland to grace your head, and…
- Proverbs 4:1-2 (v8) Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding; for I give you sound learning. Don’t forsake my law.
Show all 20 cross-references
- Proverbs 4:10 (v8) Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.
- Proverbs 6:20 (v8) My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
- Jeremiah 35:7 (v9) You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, or have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many…
- Jeremiah 35:10 (v7) but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
- Genesis 25:27 (v7) The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
- Exodus 20:12 (v7) “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Leviticus 23:42-43 (v7) You shall dwell in temporary shelters for seven days. All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in temporary shelters, that your…
- Numbers 16:14 (v9) Moreover you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out…
- 2 Kings 5:26 (v9) He said to him, “Didn’t my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to…
- Nehemiah 8:14-16 (v7) They found written in the law how Yahweh had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the…
- Proverbs 13:1 (v8) A wise son listens to his father’s instruction, but a scoffer doesn’t listen to rebuke.
- Ephesians 6:2-3 (v7) “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: “that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the…
- Ephesians 5:18 (v7) Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
- Hebrews 11:9-13 (v7) By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him…
- 1 Peter 2:11 (v7) Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (12 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv8–9 Jeremiah explains at large what might have been expressed…
Jeremiah explains at large what might have been expressed in few words, in order to amplify the constancy of the Rechabites. For one may obey his father, and yet be not so fixed in his purpose, but that he might on some slight occasion fail in his duty. Jeremiah here shews that such was the prompt perseverance of the Rechabites, that they could not be enticed by having wine set before them; but that as though no temptation had been presented to them, they kept the commandment of their father, who, at the same time, had been dead, as it has already appeared, some ages before.
They then said, that they hearkened to the voice of Jonabab the son of Rechab, their father; and also added, according to all the things which he has commanded us tle again relates what Jonadab had commanded, and to this belongs the sentence, According to all things, etc. For had he ordered them only to be abstemious, to obey would not have been difficult or hard; he designed to bind them to a wandering life, that they might be covered only by tents, and that they might not possess anything. As then Jonadab did not in one thing only try the obedience of his family, it appears more clearly how great was their promptitude and perseverance in obeying.
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They then said, first, that they were not to drink wine; and also added, all their days We indeed know that the Nazarites were forbidden to drink wine, but it was only for a time, until they had performed their vow; we also know, that when the priest was discharging his duty, he was not allowed, for that time, to take wine. But afterwards the priests as well as the Nazarites, resumed their common mode of living. But to taste no wine throughout life was a thing far more difficult. The Prophet, no doubt, detailed these particulars, that he might load the Jews with greater disgrace, who, in a matter the most just, and by no means hard, were not, as we shall see, obedient to God. They said, We, our wives, our sons, our daughters, as though they had said, “This precept has ever been observed in our family; and what has been delivered to us, by our fathers, we have followed to this day, as also our fathers, who obeyed the command of a dead man, because his will had been explained to them.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Jer 35:7 Neither shall ye build house, nor sow…
Jer 35:7 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.
Ver. 7. Neither shall ye build house.] But be content and dwell in tents, as the ancient patriarchs were, and as your ancestors in Midian, removing from place to place, after the manner of the old nomades; so shall ye be the better prepared for a change in the state, which this good old man might foresee and foresignify to his nephews, enjoining them therefore to follow their shepherdy only, as men less addicted to the world, and bent for heaven.
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That ye may live many days in the land.] While ye obey my charge. Long life is promised to children that obey their parents.
Where ye be strangers] The Rechabites were originally Midianites; but Jethro, of whom they came, was a famous proselyte in the Church; his son Hobab a guide to God’s people in the wilderness; and his posterity imped and incorporated into the body of God’s people. {Jdg 1:16} Nevertheless they counted and called themselves "strangers," alienigenae, as those that looked for a better country above. See Heb 11:9.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v7 The last words of the verse probably give us…
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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor…
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:
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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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v7 That ye may live - Jonadab cautions his sons…
That ye may live - Jonadab cautions his sons by a thrifty, sober, labourious life, to which they had been bred, in keeping flocks, to avoid any thing which might expose them to the envy or hatred of the people amongst whom they were come to sojourn.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v8 Verse 8. Thus have we obeyed the voice] We…
Verse 8. Thus have we obeyed the voice] We have considered these precepts so very reasonable, so very useful, so conducive to the health of both body and mind, and sanctioned by such a respectable antiquity that we scrupulously and religiously observe them.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v8 Jer 35:8-11. Thus have we obeyed the voice of…
Jer 35:8-11. Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab our father — We have conformed ourselves to his injunctions, and governed our lives by them, during the space of nearly three hundred years. But when Nebuchadrezzar came, &c., we said, Come, let us go to Jerusalem — The Rechabites appear to have retired within the walls of Jerusalem upon the hostile approach of Nebuchadnezzar and his army, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Calmet, indeed, supposes it was not till the latter end of Jehoiakim’s reign that the Rechabites were driven into the city for shelter, grounding his opinion upon its being said in this verse, that they entered it for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and of the army of the Syrians, and comparing this with 2Ki 24:2, where the Lord is said to have sent bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, against Judah to destroy it. “But this reasoning,” says Blaney, “will not hold, for, 1st, Nebuchadnezzar might have been, and most probably was, joined by the Syrians in his first expedition against Jerusalem, after the defeat of the Egyptians at Carchemish, which brought on the submission of Syria. And, 2d, Nebuchadnezzar does not appear to have come in person a second time, at least till after Jehoiakim was taken prisoner, and his generals had closely invested Jerusalem.” So we dwell at Jerusalem — Having retired to Jerusalem upon the Chaldean invasion, they were forced to continue there during the siege of the place. In such an extraordinary case, they did not think themselves obliged to a strict observance of the injunction of Jonadab respecting dwelling in tents, because all human laws admit of an equitable construction, and may be superseded in cases of necessity, or when the observance of them is attended with such great inconveniences as the lawgiver himself, if he could have foreseen them, would probably have excepted.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v8 Our father - Not merely our ancestor, but the…
Our father - Not merely our ancestor, but the founder of our institutions.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v7 Days. The reward of dutiful children, Exodus xx. 12.…
Days. The reward of dutiful children, Exodus xx. 12. These are models of those Christians who follow the rule of some virtuous person, in order to be at a greater distance from any transgression of the law, and to observe it with more perfection. (Calmet) --- "If a father could lay such an injunction on his descendants, and they receive commendation for observing it, why may not the fathers of the Church enjoin things which are not of themselves necessary, but....useful to avoid the occasions of evil, or to advance in virtue?" says Grotius, a Protestant, after St. Jerome, (Ad Paulin.) St. Augustine, in Psalm lxx., &c.) (Haydock) Jonadab exhorted, and prescribed this rule, but it was not properly a command, being too arduous. (Tirinus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–8 tents-- (Jdg 4:17).
tents-- (Jdg 4:17).
live many days--according to the promise connected with the fifth commandment (Exo 20:12; Eph 6:2-3).
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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; Heb 11:9-10, Heb 11:13-16).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On v7 7. neither shall ye build house, etc.] Cp. the…
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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v8 the voice of Jonadab
the voice of Jonadab
The word "voice" is a metonym for the command that Jonadab spoke. AT: "the command of Jonadab" (See: Metonymy)
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all of our days
"as long as we live." "Days" refers to the span of time.
translationWords
obey
voice
command
seed
possess
Nebuchadnezzar
Babylon
Jerusalem
Chaldea
Aram
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.