351 The Message that Jeremiah received from God ten years earlier, during the time of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Israel: 2 "Go visit the Recabite community. Invite them to meet with you in one of the rooms in God's Temple. And serve them wine." 3 So I went and got Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, along with all his brothers and sons - the whole community of the Recabites as it turned out - 4 and brought them to God's Temple and to the meeting room of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God. It was next to the meeting room of the Temple officials and just over the apartment of Maaseiah son of Shallum, who was in charge of Temple affairs. 5 Then I set out chalices and pitchers of wine for the Recabites and said, "A toast! Drink up!" 6 But they wouldn't do it. "We don't drink wine," they said. "Our ancestor Jonadab son of Recab commanded us, 'You are not to drink wine, you or your children, ever. 7 Neither shall you build houses or settle down, planting fields and gardens and vineyards. Don't own property. Live in tents as nomads so that you will live well and prosper in a wandering life.' 8 "And we've done it, done everything Jonadab son of Recab commanded. We and our wives, our sons and daughters, drink no wine at all. 9 We don't build houses. We don't have vineyards or fields or gardens. 10 We live in tents as nomads. We've listened to our ancestor Jonadab and we've done everything he commanded us. 11 "But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded our land, we said, 'Let's go to Jerusalem and get out of the path of the Chaldean and Aramean armies, find ourselves a safe place.' That's why we're living in Jerusalem right now."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 35:1-11
Commentary on Jeremiah 35:1-11
(Read Jeremiah 35:1-11)
Jonadab was famous for wisdom and piety. He lived nearly 300 years before, 2 Kings 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.