But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, [neither] ye, nor your sons forever:
Wine is the symbol of a settled life, because the vine requires time for its growth and care in its cultivation, while the preparation of the wine itself requires buildings, and it then has to be stored up before it is ready for use. The drink of nomads consists of the milk of their herds.
Jer 35:7
Strangers – Because not of Jewish blood, though wandering in their territory.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. We will drink no wine] The reason is given above. Their whole religious and political institution consisted in obedience to three simple precepts, each of which has an appropriate spiritual meaning: –
1. Ye shall drink no wine] Ye shall preserve your bodies in temperance, shall use nothing that would deprive you of the exercise of your sober reason at any time; lest in such a time ye should do what might be prejudicial to yourselves, injurious to your neighbour, or dishonourable to your God.
2. Neither shall ye build house] Ye shall not become residents in any place; ye shall not court earthly possessions; ye shall live free from ambition and from envy, that ye may be free from contention and strife.
3. But-ye shall dwell in tents] Ye shall imitate your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of the patriarchs, who dwelt in tents, being strangers and pilgrims upon earth, looking for a heavenly country, and being determined to have nothing here that would indispose their minds towards that place of endless rest, or prevent them from passing through temporal things so as not to lose those that are eternal.
There must necessarily be more in these injunctions than meets the eye in the letter of this account.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is uncertain whether father here signifies their immediate parent, or (which is more probable) their progenitor; it is most likely it referreth to that Jonadab of whom we read 2Ki 10:15, who was the father (that is, the progenitor) of this family of the Rechabites, at three hundred years distance. The reason why he left his posterity this charge is uncertain, probably to warn them against the luxury which he saw began to abound in Israel, and being desirous that they should inure themselves to a more hard and laborious life; being originally Kenites, and used to husbandry, and keeping of sheep and other cattle, he desired they should live according to their quality.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Jonadab . . . our fatherthatis, forefather and director, three hundred years before (2Ki10:15). They were called Rechabites, not Jonadabites, havingreceived their name from Rechab the father, previously totheir adopting the injunctions of Jonadab his son. This caseaffords no justification for slavish deference to the religiousopinions of the Christian fathers: for Jonadab’s injunction onlyaffected matters of the present life; moreover, it was not binding ontheir consciences, for they deemed it not unlawful to go to Jerusalemin the invasion (Jer 35:11).What is praised here is not the father’s injunction, but theobedience of the sons [CALVIN].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But they said, we will drink no wine,…. Or “we do not drink wine” e; we are not used to it; we never do drink any; it is not lawful for us to do it; nor will we, let who will solicit us:
for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father; not their immediate father, but their progenitor; perhaps the same Jonadab is meant who lived in the times of Jehu, and rode with him in his chariot; by which it appears he was a man of note and figure, and who lived near three hundred years before this time, 2Ki 10:15; which is more likely than that he should be a descendant of his, and the proper father of the present Rechabites, which is the opinion of Scaliger f:
commanded us, saying, ye shall drink no wine, [neither ye], nor your sons, for ever; as long as any of them were in the world. What was the reason of this command, and of what follows, is not easy to say; whether it was to prevent quarrels and contentions, luxury and sensuality; or to inure them to hardships; or to put them in remembrance that they were but strangers in the land in which they lived; or to retain them in the original course of life their ancestors had lived in, feeding cattle; be it what it will, these his sons thought themselves under obligations to observe it; and perhaps finding, by experience, it was for their good so to do.
e “non hibimus vinum”, Vatablus, Schmidt. f Elench. Trihaeres. Serrar. c. 24.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6-8) We will drink no wine . . .We have here, as it were, the rule of the tribe or order which looked to Jonadab as its founder. Like Samson (Jdg. 13:4-5), Samuel (inferentially from 1Sa. 1:11; 1Sa. 1:15), and the Baptist (Luk. 1:15), they were life-long Nazarites (Num. 6:1-6). Jonadabs intention was obviously to keep them as a separate people, retaining their nomadic form 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 prophets lips, to break that rule, and they answer almost in the tone of a calm but indignant protest. They have been faithful hitherto, and they will continue faithful still. In the words that your days may be long in the land we may, perhaps, trace an echo of the fifth commandment (Exo. 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. Diodoras Siculus (xix. 94) relates that the Nabathans adopted the Rechabite rule in its completeness. Possibly they were Rechabites.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6, 7. Drink no wine It will here be noticed that wine is intimately associated with settled life as opposed to a nomadic one. It is the fruit of culture agri- culture while the drink of the nomad is milk. The object of this rule of life would seem to be twofold. 1. To preserve their individuality; and 2. To preserve their purity.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 35:6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, [neither ye], nor your sons for ever:
Ver. 6. We will not drink wine. ] This they were resolved on, not because they were persuaded, as Mohammed’s followers are, that in every grape there dwelt a devil, but because Jonadab, the son of Rechab, their progenitor, 2Ki 10:15 had two or three hundred years before charged them to forbear; not thereby to establish any new arbitrary service, or any rule of greater perfection of life a (as the Papists misallege it in favour of monkery and other will worships and superstitious observances), but only as a civil ordinance about things external, the foundation whereof is laid in the Word, which commandeth modesty, humility, sobriety, heavenly mindedness, &c.
a Haec leges vitae potius eram honestatis quam salutis animae.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
for ever = unto times age-abiding.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jonadab: 2Ki 10:15, 1Ch 2:55
Ye shall: Jonadab, a man of fervent zeal for the pure worship of God, and who lived about three hundred years before this time – 2Ki 10:15, 2Ki 10:16, etc.had probably practised these rules himself; and having trained up his children to habits of abstemiousness, he enjoined them and their posterity to adhere to them. In these regulations he seems to have had no religious, but merely a prudential view, as is intimated in the reason annexed to them “that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.” And this would be the natural consequence of observing these rules; for their temperate mode of living would very much contribute to preserve health and prolong life; and they would avoid giving umbrage, or exciting the jealousy or envy of the Jews, who might have been provoked, by their engaging and succeeding in the principal business in which they themselves were engaged, agriculture and vine-dressing to expel them their country; by which they would have been deprived of the religious advantages they enjoyed. In 1Ch 2:55, they are termed scribes, which intimates that they were engaged in some kind of literary employments. Lev 10:9, Num 6:2-5, Jdg 13:7, Jdg 13:14, Luk 1:15, 1Co 7:26-31, all, Jer 35:10, Gen 25:27, Lev 23:42, Lev 23:43, Neh 8:14-16, Heb 11:9-13, 1Pe 2:11, that ye, Gen 36:7, Exo 20:12, 1Ch 16:19, Psa 105:12, Eph 6:2, Eph 6:3
Reciprocal: Num 6:3 – General Jer 35:14 – words
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 35:6. The Rechabites refused to drink the wine. They did not object because they thought it was wrong in itself, but because their father had forbidden it.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
35:6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for {e} Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, [neither ye], nor your sons for ever:
(e) Whom the king of Israel favoured for his zeal, 2Ki 10:15 .
(f) Teaching them by this to flee all opportunity for intemperancy, ambition and greed and that they might know that they were strangers in the earth, and be ready to depart at all opportunity.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Rechabites refused Jeremiah’s offer, explaining that one of their ancestors, Jonadab ben Rechab, had commanded his descendants never to drink wine. Abstinence was not a requirement of the Mosaic Law; it was simply a requirement that Jonadab imposed on his family. Faithful Nazirites also abstained from wine and grape products (cf. Numbers 6; Jdg 13:4-7; 1Sa 1:11), though the Rechabites do not seem to have been Nazirites. The Nazirite vow was normally for a brief time, but the Rechabites had abstained from wine for generations.
Jonadab lived in the Northern Kingdom during the reign of King Jehu (841-814 B.C.). He helped Jehu purge Israel of Baal worship about 840 B.C. (cf. 2Ki 10:15-27).