568 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSsuffer the added indignity of nonburial, such as Jehoiakim was promised. What
then will their fate be? Yahweh says in a final oracle that he has issued a com-
mand to bring the Babylonian army back to Jerusalem. They will besiege the
city, take it, and burn it with fire. The cities of Judah will also be made desolate
of inhabitants.
The event here described took place at the time of the Babylonian with-
drawal from Jerusalem, when it is possible to look ahead to the army's return
(v 22). This would be in Zedekiah's tenth year, early in 587 B.C. Fried and
Freedman (2001: 2260) date the lifliug of the siege between December 29, 588
and February 24, 587 B.C. Jeremiah's personal word to Zedekiah in vv 1-7 is
later, spoken during the last stage of the siege (587-586 B.c.). When the two
narrative segments are heard in sequence, the liberation of slaves and their rec-
lamation will give added reason for the judgment on Judah's king. But this
later judgment (vv 4-5) will also amplify an earlier judgment (vv 21-22) in
which nothing is said about the king dying or being left unburied. The oracle
in vv 4-5 makes it clear that Zedekiah will be given a burial, however unpleas-
ant, in a foreign land. The narrative in v 7 also fulfills the divine word of v 22,
since the Babylonians are now back, fighting the final battles against Jerusalem
and the cities of Judah.
B. WHAT ABOUT THOSE RECHABITES? (35:1-19)
- A Lesson un Obedience (35:1-11)
35 1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim
son of Josiah, king of Judah:^2 Go to the house of the Rechabites, and you
shall speak to them and bring them to the house of Yahweh, to one of the
chambers, and you shall offer them wine to drink.^3 So I took Jaazaniah son
of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons, indeed
the entire house of the Rechabites,^4 and I brought them to the house of
Yahweh, to the chamber of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of
God, which was next to the chamber of the princes, which was above the
chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold.^5 Then
I set before the sons of the house of Rechabites pitchers full of wine and
cups, and I said to them, 'Drink wine.'^6 But they said, 'We will not drink
wine, for Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, commanded us saying, "You
shall not drink wine-you or your sons-forever,^7 and a house you shall
not build, and seed you shall not sow, and a vineyard you shall not plant,
nor shall it belong to you, for in tents you shall dwell all your days, in order
that you may live many days on the face of the earth where you are sojourn-
ing."^8 And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab son of Rechab, our father,
in all that he commanded us, so as not to drink wine all our days-we, our
wives, our sons, and our daughters,^9 also so as not to build houses for our