Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah... — The names (Jaazaniah = Jehovah hears, Jeremiah = Jehovah exalts, Habaziniah = Jehovah gathers) are not without significance, as showing that the Rechabites were sharers in the faith of Israel, perhaps, as an order, conspicuous witnesses for that faith. The name Jeremiah may possibly indicate that there was some previous connexion between the Rechabites and the prophet’s family.
His brethren, and all his sons... — The words may be taken in their literal sense, but on the assumption that the Rechabites were a religious order rather than a family, the terms may indicate different stages or degrees of membership, the “brethren” being those who were fully incorporated, the “sons,” those who like “the sons of the prophets” (2 Kings 4:38; 2 Kings 6:1; 2 Kings 9:1; Amos 7:14) were still in training as probationers. Such a use of the word “brethren” would grow naturally out of that of “sons,” and is found in this wider sense of priests and Levites (1 Chronicles 15:5-18; 1 Chronicles 26:7-32 and elsewhere) and of prophets (Revelation 22:9).