The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
By the obedience of the Rechabites to their father, Jeremiah condemns the disobedience of the Jews to God their, Father. The Holy Spirit has arranged Jeremiah's prophecies by the moral rather than the chronological connection. From the history of an event fifteen years before, the Jews, who had brought back their manumitted servants into bondage (Jeremiah 34:8-22), are taught how much God loves and rewards obedience, and hates and punishes disobedience.