Jeremiah 35:2

Jeremiah was to visit the Rechabite family and to bring them to the temple. In one of the rooms that surrounded the temple proper, Jeremiah was to give them wine to drink.

The Rechabites were a branch of the Kenite clan that descended from Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law (cf. Judges 1:16; 1 Chronicles 2:55). [Note: Gerald L. Keown, Jeremiah 26-52, pp. 195-96, wrote an extended excursus on the identity of the Rechabites. Keown wrote the commentary on chapters 35-45 and 52 for this volume.] They had previously settled in northern Israel (Judges 4:17; Judges 5:24) and in southern Judah (1 Samuel 15:6). Evidently Jonadab’s branch of the family had moved from the north into the Southern Kingdom following the Assyrian invasion of 722 B.C. (cf. Jeremiah 35:6).