Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 35

In the days Jehoiakim. —The prophecy that follows carries us back over a period of about seventeen years to the earlier period of the prophet’s life and work. Jerusalem was not yet besieged. Jehoiakim had not filled up the measure of his iniquities. The armies of the Chaldeans were, however, in the meantime moving on the outskirts of the kingdom of Judah (Jeremiah 35:11) or were driving the nomad inhabitants, who had until then dwelt in tents, to take refuge in the cities. The first capture of the city by Nebuchadnezzar was in B.C. 607.

Go to the house of the Rechabites ... —The word “house” is used throughout the chapter in the sense of “family.” Among those who had so taken refuge were the tribe, or sect, or even fraternity known by this name. Their founder was Jonadab, or Jehonadab, who appears as the ally of Jehu in the overthrow of the house of Ahab (2 Kings 10:15). It is clear from that history that he exercised an influence over the people which Jehu was glad to secure, and that he welcomed the zeal for the Lord which led Jehu to the massacre of the worshippers of Baal.

He is described as the “son of Rechab,” but since that name, which means “chariot,” was applied to the great Tishbite prophet, as in the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof (2 Kings 2:12), it has been thought, with some probability, that the name “son of Rechab” means “Son of the chariot” (so in later Jewish history we have Bar-Cochba = son of the star), i.e., “disciple of the great prophet.” In any case, the life which Jonadab enforced on his followers presented all the characteristic features of that of Elijah.

It was a protest against the Baal-worship that had flowed into Israel from Phoenicia, against the corruption of the life of cities, against the intemperance that was tainting the life of Israel (Amos 6:4–6). In this respect, it reminds us of the more ascetic sects, such as the Wahabees of Arabia in the eighteenth century (see Burckhardt’s Bedouins and Wahabys, p. 283; Palgrave’s Arabia), that have at times arisen among the followers of Muhammad.

It has some points of resemblance to the Mendicant Orders of medieval Christendom. From 1 Chronicles 2:55, it appears that “the house of Rechab” belonged to the Kenites who had joined the Israelites on their exodus from Egypt and had settled in their lands, retaining their old habits (Judges 1:16; Judges 4:11; Numbers 10:29–32; 1 Samuel 15:6; 1 Samuel 27:10). Such a people naturally retained many of the habits of patriarchal life, and it is not improbable that Elijah himself came from their tents.

Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah ... —The names (Jaazaniah = Jehovah hears, Jeremiah = Jehovah exalts, Habaziniah = Jehovah gathers) are not without significance, as showing that the Rechabites were sharers in the faith of Israel, perhaps, as an order, conspicuous witnesses for that faith. The name Jeremiah may possibly indicate that there was some previous connection between the Rechabites and the prophet’s family.

His brethren, and all his sons ... —The words may be taken in their literal sense, but on the assumption that the Rechabites were a religious order rather than a family, the terms may indicate different stages or degrees of membership, the “brethren” being those who were fully incorporated, the “sons,” those who like “the sons of the prophets” (2 Kings 4:38; 2 Kings 6:1; 2 Kings 9:1; Amos 7:14) were still in training as probationers. Such a use of the word “brethren” would grow naturally out of that of “sons,” and is found in this wider sense of priests and Levites (1 Chronicles 15:5–18; 1 Chronicles 26:7–32 and elsewhere) and of prophets (Revelation 22:9).

I brought them into the house of the Lord ... — The Temple of Solomon appears from 1 Kings 6:5 to have had, like a cathedral, apartments constructed in its precincts which were assigned, by special favour, for the residence of conspicuous priests or prophets. Huldah the prophetess seems to have dwelt in some such apartments known as “the college” (see 2 Kings 22:14). In this case, the chamber was occupied by the sons of Hanan. He, or Igdaliah (the Hebrew punctuation is decisive in favour of Hanan), is described as “a man of God”—i.e., as a prophet—and therefore, we may believe, sympathising with Jeremiah’s work (Deuteronomy 33:1; 1 Samuel 2:27; 1 Kings 13:1; 1 Kings 20:28; 2 Kings 4:7; 2 Kings 4:9; 1 Chronicles 23:14; 2 Chronicles 11:2).

It would seem, from the narrative, that Jeremiah had no chamber of his own. Here also, “the sons of Hanan” are probably a company of scholars under the training of the prophet, with Jeremiah introducing, as it were, the two religious orders to each other. The “princes,” as in Jeremiah 26:10 and Jeremiah 36:12, were probably official persons who, though not priests, were entitled to residence in the precincts, as we see in the case of Gemariah in Jeremiah 36:10. The “keeper of the door,” as in Jeremiah 52:24, was probably one of the higher section of the priesthood. The stress laid on all these details was probably intended to show that the memorable dramatic scene that followed, daring as it seemed, was acted in the presence of representatives of the priestly, prophetic, and official orders.

The name of Maaseiah has, however, a special interest attached to it. Shallum, his father's name, is found in 2 Kings 22:14 as that of the husband of Huldah, the prophetess of Josiah’s reign; he is described as the “keeper of the wardrobe”—i.e., probably of the priests' vestments—and as dwelling in the “college” (literally, the “second” part, or annexe, of some other building). It is hardly possible to resist the inference that in Maaseiah, who now appears receiving Jeremiah and the Rechabites, we have the son of the prophetess who had taken such an active part in the work of reformation in Josiah’s reign, whose influence had coloured the whole of the prophet’s life, and who had brought up her son within the precincts of the Temple.

We are brought, as it were, into the innermost circle of the prophetic company of Jerusalem and are reminded of Simeon and Anna, and those who waited for the consolation, for the redemption of Israel (Luke 2:25; Luke 2:38). Shallum's influence may, perhaps, be traced to the fact that the king who appears in history as Jehoahaz had probably been named by Josiah after him (2 Kings 23:30; 1 Chronicles 3:15), just as David named one of his sons after Nathan (2 Samuel 5:14). It is, perhaps, from this point of view, characteristic of Jeremiah that he adheres in Jeremiah 22:1 to the old name given at his birth, and not to that which he had apparently adopted upon his accession to the throne. The name Shallum, it may be noted, means “retribution,” whether for good or for evil.

We will drink no wine ... — We have here, so to speak, the rule of the tribe or order which looked to Jonadab as its founder. Like Samson (Judges 13:4–5), Samuel (inferentially from 1 Samuel 1:11; 1 Samuel 1:15), and the Baptist (Luke 1:15), they were lifelong Nazarites (Numbers 6:1–6). Jonadab’s intention was obviously to keep them as a separate people, retaining their nomadic way of life, free from the contamination of cities, or the temptations of acquired property, or the risks of attack which such property brought with it. They are now invited, and it must have seemed to them a strange invitation to come from a prophet’s lips, to break that rule, and they answer almost in the tone of a calm but indignant protest.

They have been faithful until now, and they will continue to be faithful. In the words that your days may be long in the land, we may, perhaps, trace an echo of the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12), viewed as extending to the relations which connect the members of an order with its head. The rule has descended to the followers of Islam, and the law of abstinence has been extended by Abdul-Wahab to tobacco. Diodorus Siculus (xix. 94) relates that the Nabataeans adopted the Rechabite rule in its completeness. Possibly they were Rechabites.