Jeremiah 35:9

Good News Translation

We do not build houses for homes—we live in tents—and we own no vineyards, fields, or grain. We have fully obeyed everything that our ancestor Jonadab commanded us.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
We also have not built houses to live in and do not have vineyard, field, or seed.

Hebrew Names Version
nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

King James Version
Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

English Standard Version
and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed,

New American Standard Bible
nor to build ourselves houses to live in; and we do not have a vineyard, a field, or seed.

New Century Version
We never build houses in which to live, or own fields or vineyards, or plant crops.

Amplified Bible
nor have we built ourselves houses to live in; nor do we have vineyards or fields or seed.

World English Bible
nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

Geneva Bible (1587)
Neither builde wee houses for vs to dwell in, neither haue we vineyard, nor fielde, nor seede,

Legacy Standard Bible
nor to build ourselves houses to inhabit; and we do not have vineyard or field or seed.

Berean Standard Bible
Nor have we built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields, or crops.

Complete Jewish Bible
not to build houses for ourselves to live in; and not to have vineyards, fields or seed.

Darby Translation
and not to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed;

Easy-to-Read Version
We never build houses to live in, we never own vineyards or fields, and we never plant crops.

George Lamsa Translation
Nor to build houses for ourselves to dwell in; neither to have vineyards nor fields nor seed;

Lexham English Bible
and not to build houses for our living, and there is not vineyard, or field, or seed for us.

Literal Translation
nor to build houses for us for our dwelling; nor do we have a vineyard, or field, or seed.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Nether buylde we eny house to dwell therin, we haue also amonge vs nether vynyardes, ner corne lode to sowe:

American Standard Version
nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

Bible in Basic English
Building no houses for ourselves, having no vine-gardens or fields or seed:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
nor to build houses for us to dwell in, neither to have vineyard, or field, or seed;

King James Version (1611)
Nor to build houses for vs to dwel in, neither haue we Uineyard, nor field, nor seed.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Neither buylde we any house to dwel therein: we haue also among vs neither vineyardes, nor corne lande to sowe:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
As for the prophet that has prophesied for peace, when the word has come to pass, they shall know the prophet whom the Lord has sent them in truth.

English Revised Version
nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and we bildiden not housis to dwelle, and we hadden not a vyner, and a feeld, and seed;

Update Bible Version
nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

Webster's Bible Translation
Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

New English Translation
We have not built any houses to live in. We do not own any vineyards, fields, or crops.

New King James Version
nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; nor do we have vineyard, field, or seed.

New Living Translation
We haven't built houses or owned vineyards or farms or planted crops.

New Life Bible
We have never built houses to live in, and we do not have grape-fields or fields or seeds to plant.

New Revised Standard
and not to build houses to live in. We have no vineyard or field or seed;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and not to bud houses for us to dwell in, - and so, vineyard or field or seed, have we none;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Nor to build houses to dwell in, nor to have vineyard, or field, or seed:

Revised Standard Version
and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed;

Young's Literal Translation
nor to build houses for our dwelling; and vineyard, and field, and seed, we have none;

New American Standard Bible (1995)
nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; and we do not have vineyard or field or seed.

Contextual Overview

¹ When Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, ² "Go to the members of the Rechabite clan and talk to them. Then bring them into one of the rooms in the Temple and offer them some wine." ³ So I took the entire Rechabite clan—Jaazaniah (the son of another Jeremiah, who was Habazziniah's son) and all his brothers and sons— ⁴ and brought them to the Temple. I took them into the room of the disciples of the prophet Hanan son of Igdaliah. This room was above the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum, an important official in the Temple, and near the rooms of the other officials. ⁵ Then I placed cups and bowls full of wine before the Rechabites, and I said to them, "Have some wine." ⁶ But they answered, "We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab told us that neither we nor our descendants were ever to drink any wine. ⁷ He also told us not to build houses or farm the land and not to plant vineyards or buy them. He commanded us always to live in tents, so that we might remain in this land where we live like strangers. ⁸ We have obeyed all the instructions that Jonadab gave us. We ourselves never drink wine, and neither do our wives, our sons, or our daughters. ⁹We do not build houses for homes—we live in tents—and we own no vineyards, fields, or grain. We have fully obeyed everything that our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. ¹¹ But when King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, we decided to come to Jerusalem to get away from the Babylonian and Syrian armies. That is why we are living in Jerusalem."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Jeremiah 35:7, Numbers 16:14, 2 Kings 5:26, Psalms 37:16, 1 Timothy 6:6

Reciprocal: Genesis 4:20 - dwell

Cross-References

Genesis 12:7
The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants." Then Abram built an altar there to the Lord , who had appeared to him.

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

Genesis 18:1
The Lord appeared to Abraham at the sacred trees of Mamre. As Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day,

Genesis 26:2
The Lord had appeared to Isaac and had said, "Do not go to Egypt; stay in this land, where I tell you to stay.

Genesis 28:13
And there was the Lord standing beside him. "I am the Lord , the God of Abraham and Isaac," he said. "I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying.

Genesis 31:3
Then the Lord said to him, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you."

Genesis 32:1
As Jacob went on his way, some angels met him.

Genesis 35:1
God said to Jacob, "Go to Bethel at once, and live there. Build an altar there to me, the God who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau."

Genesis 35:2
So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have; purify yourselves and put on clean clothes.

Genesis 35:3
We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Nor build houses for us to dwell in,.... This explains that part of the charge more fully, which respects building of houses; which did not restrain them from building houses for others, if any of them were masters of that art; which is not very likely, since they were wholly brought up in the field as shepherds; but it forbad them building any for themselves, and making use of them by dwelling in them:

neither have we vineyard, nor field, or seed; any piece of ground planted with vines, or field sown with corn, or any seed to sow with; so exactly conformable were they to the prescriptions of their ancestor. Diodorus Siculus g reports of the Nabatheans, a people of Arabia, descended from Nebaioth, see Isaiah 60:7; that they have several laws which are much the same with those enjoined the Rechabites; for he says,

"it is a law with them not to sow corn, nor to plant any plant that bears fruit, nor to make use of wine, nor to build houses; and whosoever is found doing any of these things is, reckoned worthy of death; and the reason of their having such a law is, because they think that those who possess such things are easily compelled by men in power to do whatever is commanded them, for the sake of the enjoyment of them.''

g Bibliothec. l. 19. p. 730. Ed. Rhod.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Our father - Not merely our ancestor, but the founder of our institutions.