Jeremiah 5:11
5:11 For the nations of Israel and Judah 1
have been very unfaithful to me,”
says the Lord.
Jeremiah 5:20
5:20 “Proclaim 2 this message among the descendants of Jacob. 3
Make it known throughout Judah.
Jeremiah 5:30
5:30 “Something horrible and shocking
is going on in the land of Judah:
Jeremiah 30:4
Israel and Judah Will Be Delivered after a Time of Deep Distress
30:4 So here is what the Lord has to say about Israel and Judah. 4
Jeremiah 34:6
34:6 The prophet Jeremiah told all this to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 35:1
Judah’s Unfaithfulness Contrasted with the Rechabites’ Faithfulness
35:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Jehoiakim 5 son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. 6
1 tn Heb “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”
2 sn The verbs are second plural here. Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, addresses his people, calling on them to make the message further known.
3 tn Heb “in the house of Jacob.”
4 tn Heb “And these are the words/things that the Lord speaks concerning Israel and Judah.”
5 sn The introductory statement here shows that this incident is earlier than those in Jer 32–34 which all take place in the reign of Zedekiah. Jehoiakim ruled from 609/8 b.c. until 598/97 b.c. and his brother Zedekiah followed him after a brief reign of three months by Jehoiakim’s son who was captured by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon. Zedekiah ruled from 598/7 b.c. until the kingdom fell in 587/86. The position of this chapter is out of chronological order emphasizing the theme of covenant infidelity (Jer 34; 35:12-17) versus the faithfulness to his commands that God expected from Israel as illustrated by the Rechabites’ faithfulness to the commands of their progenitor. This is thus another one of those symbolic acts in Jeremiah which have significance to the message of the book (compare Jer 13, 19). This incident likely took place during the time that people living in the countryside like the Rechabites were forced to take shelter in the fortified cities because of the raiding parties that Nebuchadnezzar had sent against Jehoiakim after he had rebelled against him in 603 b.c. (compare v. 11 and Jer 4:5 with 2 Kgs 24:1-2).
6 tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, saying.”