“We do not drink wine,” they replied, “for our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us, ‘Neither you nor your descendants are ever to drink wine.
This chapter is of an earlier date than many of those before; for what is contained in it was said and done in the days of Jehoiakim (Jer 35:1); but then it must be in the latter part of his reign, for it was after the king of Babylon with his army came up into the land (Jer 35:11), which seems to refer to the...
Commenting on Jeremiah 35:1-11
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...
Jonadab . . . our father--that is, forefather and director, three hundred years before (Kg2 10:15). They were called Rechabites, not Jonadabites, having received their name from Rechab the father, previously to their adopting the injunctions of Jonadab his son.