Jeremiah 35 is the thirty-fifth
chapter of the
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah ( he, ספר יִרְמְיָהוּ) is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the second of the Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. The superscription at chapter Jeremiah 1:1–3 identifies the boo ...
in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
or the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
of the
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
. It is numbered as Jeremiah 42 in the
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
. This book contains prophecies attributed to the
prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
Jeremiah
Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...
, and is one of the
Books of the Prophets
Nevi'im (; he, נְבִיאִים ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons") is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim (wri ...
. This chapter records the meeting of Jeremiah with the
Rechabite
The Rechabites () are a biblical clan, the descendants of Rechab through Jehonadab.
Biblical sources
The Rechabites belonged to the Kenites, who accompanied the Israelites into the Holy Land and dwelt among them. The main body of the Kenites dwe ...
s, a nomadic clan, in which the prophet "contrast
their faithfulness to the commands of a dead ancestor with the faithlessness of the people of
Judah to the commands of a living God".
Text
The original text was written in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
.
This chapter is divided into 19 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
are of the
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
tradition, which includes the
Codex Cairensis
The Codex Cairensis (also: ''Codex Prophetarum Cairensis'', ''Cairo Codex of the Prophets'') is a Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Hebrew Bible's Nevi'im (Prophets). It has traditionally been described as "the oldest dated He ...
(895),
the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916),
Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...
(10th century),
Codex Leningradensis
The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...
(1008).
There is also a translation into
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
known as the
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
version include
Codex Vaticanus
The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...
(B;
B; 4th century),
Codex Sinaiticus
The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...
(S;
BHK:
S; 4th century),
Codex Alexandrinus
The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...
(A;
A; 5th century) and
Codex Marchalianus
Codex Marchalianus designated by siglum Q is a 6th-century Greek manuscript copy of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Old Testament) known as the Septuagint. The text was written on vellum in uncial letters. Palaeographically it ...
(Q;
Q; 6th century).
Verse numbering
The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text (Hebrew), and
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
(Latin), in some places differs from that in
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...
(LXX, the Greek Bible used in the
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...
and others) according to Rahlfs or
Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from ''Brenton's Septuagint'', page 971.
The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study (CATSS) based on ''
Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta'' (1935), differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition (1957) in ''Göttingen LXX''. ''Swete's Introduction'' mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition (=CATSS).
Parashot
The ''
parashah
The term ''parashah'' ( he, פָּרָשָׁה ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian , Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Heb ...
'' sections listed here are based on the
Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...
. Jeremiah 35 contains the "''Fourteenth prophecy''" in the section of ''Prophecies interwoven with narratives about the prophet's life (
Jeremiah 26
Jeremiah 26 is the twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.Halley, Henry H. ''Halley's Bible Handbook'': An Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing ...
-45)''. : open ''parashah''.
: 35:1-11 35:12-19
The obedience of the Rechabites (35:1–11)
This chapter (and also
chapter 36) is out of the chronological order of chapter 32-34 and 37-44, as it records the events during the reign of king
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim, also sometimes spelled Jehoikim; la, Joakim was the eighteenth and antepenultimate king of Judah from 609 to 598 BC. He was the second son of king Josiah () and Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. His birth name was Eliakim.; ...
(609-598 BC). According to Weippert, "the phrases found in the chapter are characteristic of Jeremiah." Huey maintains that it is not "misplaced by accident or through a redactor's ignorance of the chronology of events", but perhaps to "emphasis that Judah's disobedience ... had begun much earlier than the closing years of Zedekiah's reign." This section provides an illustration contrasting the covenant infidelity of Israel against God as the Father of the nation (
Jeremiah 34; ) and the fidelity of the
Rechabites
The Rechabites () are a biblical clan, the descendants of Rechab through Jehonadab.
Biblical sources
The Rechabites belonged to the Kenites, who accompanied the Israelites into the Holy Land and dwelt among them. The main body of the Kenites dwel ...
to the commandments of their progenitor.
[Note on Jeremiah 35:1 in ]NET Bible
The New English Translation (NET Bible) is a free, "completely new" online English translation of the Bible, "with 60,932 translators' notes" sponsored by the Biblical Studies Foundation and published by Biblical Studies Press.
History and text ...
. This is another one of the symbolic acts in Jeremiah that have significance for the message of the book (cf.
Jeremiah 13
Jeremiah 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets.
Text
The ...
,
19).
When Egyptians decided to fight the Babylonians in Palestine,
Nebuchadnezzar temporarily lifted the siege on
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, sending a raiding troops to attack other areas in
Judah instead (660-598 SM; cf.
verse 11
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict ...
;
Jeremiah 4;
2 Kings 24:1–
2), which drove the Rechabites, among the people living in the countryside, to Jerusalem (or other fortified cities) for safety during that period.
Calmet suggests that "it was not till the latter end of Jehoiakim’s reign that the Rechabites were driven into the city".
Verse 1
:''The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying''
The introductory statement here shows that this incident is earlier than those in
Jeremiah 32
Jeremiah 32 is the thirty-second chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It is numbered as Jeremiah 39 in the Septuagint. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah ...
–
34, which all took place in the reign of
Zedekiah
Zedekiah (), was the 20th and last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. His birth name was Mattaniah/Mattanyahu ( he, מַתַּנְיָהוּ, ''Mattanyāhū'', "Gift of God"; el, Μαθ ...
.
*"The days of Jehoiakim": Jehoiakim's reign was from 609/608 BCE until 598 BCE, then after a brief reign of Jehoiakim's son,
Jehoiachin
Jeconiah ( he, יְכָנְיָה ''Yəḵonəyā'' , meaning "Yah has established"; el, Ιεχονιας; la, Iechonias, Jechonias), also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin ( he, יְהוֹיָכִין ''Yəhōyāḵīn'' ; la, Ioachin, Joach ...
(three months in 598/597 BCE),
Zedekiah
Zedekiah (), was the 20th and last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. His birth name was Mattaniah/Mattanyahu ( he, מַתַּנְיָהוּ, ''Mattanyāhū'', "Gift of God"; el, Μαθ ...
, Jehoiakim's brother, ruled from 597 BCE until the
kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah ( he, , ''Yəhūdā''; akk, 𒅀𒌑𒁕𒀀𒀀 ''Ya'údâ'' 'ia-ú-da-a-a'' arc, 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃 ''Bēyt Dāwīḏ'', " House of David") was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Ce ...
fell in 587/586 BCE.
Verse 11
:
he Rechabites said to Jeremiah:''"But it came to pass, when
Nebuchadrezzar
Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling ...
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."''
*"The army of the Chaldeans": from Hebrew: , '' ha-''; some Bible versions render it as "the Babylonian(s)".
[Note on Jeremiah 35:1 and Jeremiah 21:4 in NET Bible] The "
Chaldeans" were a group of people from southern Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar came from.
The book of Jeremiah regularly calls the Babylonians as the Chaldeans, whereas Jeremiah's contemporary,
Ezekiel, uses both terms.
Judah rebuked (35:12–19)
Verse 18
: ''And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you’”''
* "The house of the
Rechabites
The Rechabites () are a biblical clan, the descendants of Rechab through Jehonadab.
Biblical sources
The Rechabites belonged to the Kenites, who accompanied the Israelites into the Holy Land and dwelt among them. The main body of the Kenites dwel ...
": A close knit descendants of the Kenites (; ) known from the story of Jehonadab the son of Rechab, who helped
Jehu
) as depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
, succession = King of Northern Israel
, reign = c. 841–814 BCE
, coronation = Ramoth-Gilead, Israel
, birth_date = c. 882 BCE
, death_date = c. 814 BCE
, burial_place ...
(reigning 842-814 BC)
[The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. p. 1135 Hebrew Bible. ] purging the Baal prophets from
Samaria
Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first- ...
(). The Rechabites lived as nomads, rejecting all forms of urban and agrarian life, and refused to drink wine or strong drink and would not cultivate vineyards nor plant any other crops. The complete obedience of the Rechabites is "outlined in a triad of verbs: ''obeyed'' ... ''kept'' ... ''done''". Rabbi
Halafta
Halafta or Rabbi Halafta (רבי חלפתא) was a rabbi who lived in Sepphoris in the Galilee during the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE (second generation of tannaim). He was the father of Jose ben Halafta, and one of the latter's teachers o ...
(1st–2nd centuries) was a descendant of the Rechabites. In 1839 the Reverend
Joseph Wolff
Joseph Wolff (1795 – 2 May 1862) was a Jewish Christian missionary born in Weilersbach, near Bamberg, Germany, named Wolff after his paternal grandfather. He travelled widely, and was known as "the missionary to the world". He published sev ...
found in
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
, near
Sana'a
Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...
, a tribe claiming to be descendants of Jehonadab; and in the late nineteenth century a
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
tribe was found near the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
who also professed to be descendants of Jehonadab.
Verse 19
:
eremiah said to the house of the Rechabites:''"Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.""''
* "Stand before Me": an expression found over 100 times in the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
means "to stand before someone with an attitude of service," used of priests (), kings () or prophets (
1 Kings 17:1). The Septuagint has the closing as ("to stand before my face while the earth remains"; he, לכן כה אמר יהוה צבאות... ). notes that "Malchijah the son of Rechab ... repaired the Refuse Gate; he built it and hung its doors with its bolts and bars", cooperating to restore the wall of Jerusalem, approximately 150 years later.
:More sightings are reported through the ages:
Hegesippus,
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...
. Hist. Eccl. II. 23 in his account of the "martyrdom of James the Just", speaks about the "priests of the sons of Rechab" looking on in reverential sympathy with James; Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller in the 12th century, reports that about 100,000 Jews, who were called "Rechabites" with the customs as in this chapter, lived near ''El Jubar''.
See also
*Related
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
part:
Judges 1
Judges 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Judges, the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, a sacred text in Judaism and Christianity. With the exception of the first verse, scholars have long recognised and studied the parallels ...
,
2 Kings 10,
1 Chronicles 2
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Jewish
Jeremiah 35 Hebrew with Parallel English
Christian
Jeremiah 35 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeremiah 35
35