Jer 35:1 | KingComments | STEP | In , we again have a time indication that determines us in what time the event being described takes place. Here we go back seventeen years in time. There is no chronological order in this book. Jerusalem is not yet under siege. Nebuchadnezzar comes up against the land ( ). The Rechabites ( ) are descendants of the Kenites or Midianites ( ; ). They have joined the people of God. Jeremiah is to speak to them, which will mean informing them of the LORD’s will. That will is for them to go to the house of the LORD, where in one of its chambers Jeremiah is to give them wine to drink. Jeremiah does as he is instructed ( ). He takes Jaazaniah, the leader of the house of the Rechabites, with his brothers and all their relatives. He brings the whole company into the house of the LORD in a chamber that is specifically described ( ). First it is said who the chamber belongs to. It is “the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God”. About Igdaliah – his name means ’great is Yahweh’ – we are told nothing else in Scripture than what we read here. He has a son and grandsons. His son Hanan is a “man of God” – given the structure of the sentence, that title seems to apply to him and not to Igdaliah – an expression also used for men like Elijah and Elisha. That name means that Hanan is someone who upholds God’s rights in a time when the masses do not take those rights into account. This is followed by saying who the neighbors next door and below are. In the chamber next door are the princes and in the chamber below that lives the doorkeeper. These are all people with a high and responsible position in the midst of the people and with regard to the house of God. Maaseiah is one of the three doorkeepers of the temple ( ). In the chamber of the sons of the man of God, a chamber surrounded by an exquisite company, Jeremiah brings in the raw nomads. There he sets before them a large quantity of wine and commands them to drink wine ( ).

‏ Jeremiah 35:1

The Rechabites Tested

In Jer 35:1, we again have a time indication that determines us in what time the event being described takes place. Here we go back seventeen years in time. There is no chronological order in this book. Jerusalem is not yet under siege. Nebuchadnezzar comes up against the land (Jer 35:11).

The Rechabites (Jer 35:2) are descendants of the Kenites or Midianites (1Chr 2:55; Jdg 1:16 ; Jdg 4:11). They have joined the people of God. Jeremiah is to speak to them, which will mean informing them of the LORD’s will. That will is for them to go to the house of the LORD, where in one of its chambers Jeremiah is to give them wine to drink.

Jeremiah does as he is instructed (Jer 35:3). He takes Jaazaniah, the leader of the house of the Rechabites, with his brothers and all their relatives. He brings the whole company into the house of the LORD in a chamber that is specifically described (Jer 35:4). First it is said who the chamber belongs to. It is “the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God”.

About Igdaliah – his name means ’great is Yahweh’ – we are told nothing else in Scripture than what we read here. He has a son and grandsons. His son Hanan is a “man of God” – given the structure of the sentence, that title seems to apply to him and not to Igdaliah – an expression also used for men like Elijah and Elisha. That name means that Hanan is someone who upholds God’s rights in a time when the masses do not take those rights into account.

This is followed by saying who the neighbors next door and below are. In the chamber next door are the princes and in the chamber below that lives the doorkeeper. These are all people with a high and responsible position in the midst of the people and with regard to the house of God. Maaseiah is one of the three doorkeepers of the temple (Jer 52:24).

In the chamber of the sons of the man of God, a chamber surrounded by an exquisite company, Jeremiah brings in the raw nomads. There he sets before them a large quantity of wine and commands them to drink wine (Jer 35:5).