Jeremiah 35

Jeremiah 35
Jeremiah 35
← chapter 34 chapter 36 →
	A high resolution scan of the Aleppo Codex showing the Book of Jeremiah (the sixth book in Nevi'im).
Book	Book of Jeremiah
Hebrew Bible part	Nevi'im
Order in the Hebrew part	6
Category	Latter Prophets
Christian Bible part	Old Testament
Order in the Christian part	24

Jeremiah 35 is the thirty-fifth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It is numbered as Jeremiah 42 in the Septuagint. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter records the meeting of Jeremiah with the Rechabites, a nomadic clan, in which the prophet "contrast[s] their faithfulness to the commands of a dead ancestor with the faithlessness of the people of Judah to the commands of a living God".^[1]

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 19 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008).^[2]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^Q; 6th century).^[3]

Verse numbering

The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text (Hebrew), and Vulgate (Latin), in some places differs from that in Septuagint (LXX, the Greek Bible used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and others) according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.^[4]

The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study (CATSS) based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta (1935), differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition (1957) in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition (=CATSS).^[4]

Hebrew, Vulgate, English	Rahlfs' LXX (CATSS)
35:1-19	42:1-19
28:1-17	35:1-17

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.^[5] Jeremiah 35 contains the "Fourteenth prophecy" in the section of Prophecies interwoven with narratives about the prophet's life (Jeremiah 26 -45). {P}: open parashah.

{P} 35:1-11 {P} 35:12-19 {P}

Verse 1

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying^[6]

This chapter (and also chapter 36) is out of the chronological order of chapter 32-34 and 37-44, as it records the events during the reign of king Jehoiakim (609-598 BC).^[1] According to Weippert, "the phrases found in the chapter are characteristic of Jeremiah."^[7] Huey maintains that it is not "misplaced by accident or through a redactor's ignorance of the chronology of events", but perhaps to "emphasis that Judah's disobedience ... had begun much earlier than the closing years of Zedekiah's reign."^[1] When Egyptians decided to fight the Babylonians in Palestine, Nebuchadnezzar temporarily lifted the siege on Jerusalem, raiding other areas in Judah instead (660-598 SM), which drove the Rechabites to Jerusalem for safety during that period.^[1]^[8] Calmet suggests that "it was not till the latter end of Jehoiakim’s reign that the Rechabites were driven into the city".^[9]

Verse 18

And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you’”^[10]

"The house of the Rechabites": A close knit descendants of the Kenites (Judges 1:16; 1 Chronicles 2:55) known from the story of Jehonadab the son of Rechab, who helped Jehu (reigning 842-814 BC)^[11] purging the Baal prophets from Samaria (2 Kings 10:15–28). The Rechabites lived as nomads, rejecting all forms of urban and agrarian life, and refused to drink wine or strong drink and would not cultivate vineyards nor plant any other crops. The complete obedience of the Rechabites is "outlined in a triad of verbs: obeyed ... kept ... done".

Verse 19

[Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites:] “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.””^[12]

"Stand before Me": an expression found over 100 times in the Old Testament means "to stand before someone with an attitude of service," used of priests (Numbers 16:9 NKJVTemplate:Bibleverse with invalid book), kings (1 Kings 10:8) or prophets (1 Kings 17:1).^[1] The Septuagint has the closing as παραἵστημι κατά πρόσωπον ἐγώ πᾶς ὁ ἡμέρα ὁ γῆ ^[13] ("to stand before my face while the earth remains").^[14] Nehemiah 3:14 notes that "Malchijah the son of Rechab ... repaired the Refuse Gate; he built it and hung its doors with its bolts and bars", cooperating to restore the wall of Jerusalem, approximately 150 years later.^[1]

More sightings are reported through the ages: Hegesippus,^[15] in his account of the "martyrdom of James the Just", speaks about the "priests of the sons of Rechab" looking on in reverential sympathy with James; Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller in the 12th century, reports that about 100,000 Jews, who were called "Rechabites" with the customs as in this chapter, lived near El Jubar.^[16]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Huey 1993, p. 312.
^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 35–37.
^ Würthwein 1995, pp. 73–74.
^ ^a ^b "Table of Order of Jeremiah in Hebrew and Septuagint". www.ccel.org.
^ As reflected in the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 edition of the Hebrew Bible in English.
^ Jeremiah 35:1 NKJV
^ Weippert, H. Die Prosareden des Jeremiabuches, BZAW, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 1973. pp. 121-148.
^ Nicholson, E. W. Jeremiah, CBCE. Cambridge: University Press. 1973. pp. 100-101.
^ Benson, J., Benson's Commentary on Jeremiah 35, accessed 18 March 2019
^ Jeremiah 35:18 NKJV
^ The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. p. 1135 Hebrew Bible. ISBN 978-0195288810
^ Jeremiah 35:19 NKJV
^ "Jeremiah 35:19 - לכן כה אמר יהוה צבאות... - Interlinear Study Bible". StudyLight.org.
^ "Jeremiah 35 Brenton Septuagint Translation". biblehub.com.
^ Eusebius. Hist. Eccl. II. 23
^ Ryle 2009.

Bibliography

Huey, F. B. (1993). The New American Commentary - Jeremiah, Lamentations: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, NIV Text. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 9780805401165. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Ryle, Herbert Edward (2009). The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Paperback. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 9781117708690. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

Jewish

Jeremiah 35 Hebrew with Parallel English

Christian

Jeremiah 35 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate

[FOOTNOTEHuey1993312-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Huey 1993, p. 312.

[FOOTNOTEWürthwein199535–37-2] Würthwein 1995, pp. 35–37.

[FOOTNOTEWürthwein199573–74-3] Würthwein 1995, pp. 73–74.

[ccel-4] "Table of Order of Jeremiah in Hebrew and Septuagint". www.ccel.org.

[5] As reflected in the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 edition of the Hebrew Bible in English.

[6] Jeremiah 35:1 NKJV

[7] Weippert, H. Die Prosareden des Jeremiabuches, BZAW, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 1973. pp. 121-148.

[8] Nicholson, E. W. Jeremiah, CBCE. Cambridge: University Press. 1973. pp. 100-101.

[9] Benson, J., Benson's Commentary on Jeremiah 35, accessed 18 March 2019

[10] Jeremiah 35:18 NKJV

[newoxford-11] The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. p. 1135 Hebrew Bible. ISBN 978-0195288810

[12] Jeremiah 35:19 NKJV

[13] "Jeremiah 35:19 - לכן כה אמר יהוה צבאות... - Interlinear Study Bible". StudyLight.org.

[14] "Jeremiah 35 Brenton Septuagint Translation". biblehub.com.

[15] Eusebius. Hist. Eccl. II. 23

[FOOTNOTERyle2009-16] Ryle 2009.

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