Jeremiah 35:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Go unto the house of the Rechabites— Several learned men are of opinion, that the Jonadab mentioned in this chapter was not the same with him who is mentioned Exodus 10:15 for they think it is not likely that a man addicted to so quiet and retired a life as he instituted, would have come to meet Jehu. But why might not Jonadab, how well soever he loved retirement, come upon this occasion to congratulate Jehu's zeal against idolatry, and to advise and encourage him to proceed in fulfilling the word of God revealed to him? The reason is obvious, why Jehu might be glad of the countenance and company of such a man, whose known piety would gain him more respect than the attendance of any great captain could procure him. But though Jonadab the son of Rechab is allowed to have been a good man, yet it does not therefore follow that he received the ancient rules of the Rechabites, as some think, purely upon a religious account, but as a matter of policy. The history is this: the Rechabites were of the race of Hobab or Jethro the Kenite, priest of Midian, and father-in-law to Moses: 1 Chronicles 2:55. So that the Rechabites were Midianites, and the Midianites were dwellers in tents from the beginning; for in this manner Abraham lived while he sojourned in the land of Canaan; and, in imitation of him, the Midianites, who were of his posterity, might do the same. Now, when the children of Hobab, who were all Kenites, were invited by Moses to go with the people of God into Canaan, they might retain this pastoral manner of life; not only as a badge of the nation from which they were descended, but as a means likewise to make their habitation more quiet and secure, in a land where they were strangers, both from the envy of the Jews at home, and from the danger of enemies abroad; for, having neither houses nor lands, but tents and cattle only, which they move upon occasion from place to place, they could not be so subject to hostile invasion: but as in a course of time these Kenites were tempted by the more pleasant living of the Israelites, to think of changing this custom of their ancestors, this Jonadab the son of Rechab, a famous Kenite, and of much esteem and authority among them, took occasion to renew it again, and to bind his posterity to observe it. For which end he forbad the drinking of wine, lest the desire of so delicious a liquor might tempt them to plant vineyards and build houses as the Jews did. What authority he had to enforce these arbitrary injunctions, we cannot learn. It is plain, that he laid his posterity under no curse in case of disobedience. On the contrary, we find that our prophet was here directed by God to bring them to an apartment in the temple, to set wine before them, and invite them to drink, which would have been an unworthy action, if they had been under an indispensable obligation to abstain from it; and on the other hand the Rechabites refused it, not because their father laid them under any curse if they disobeyed him; but because he promised that they should live many days in the land wherein they were strangers, if they obeyed his voice, Jeremiah 35:7 which promise being also made to those who honoured their parents, might the more incline them to that strict obedience for which they are so highly commended by God. Upon the whole, therefore, it appears, that Jonadab only renewed what his ancestors had observed long before he was born; and that his authority prevailed among his brethren to continue this form of abstinence for two hundred years after he was dead, rather as a civil custom than as a matter of religion. See Bishop Patrick and Bedford's Scripture Chronology, book 6: chap. 2. Instead of house, Houbigant reads, family of the Rechabites; and so Jeremiah 35:3.