Jeremiah 35:7

New Living Translation

And do not build houses or plant crops or vineyards, but always live in tents. If you follow these commands, you will live long, good lives in the land.'

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
You must not build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Rather, you must live in tents your whole life, so you may live a long time on the soil where you stay as a resident alien.’

Hebrew Names Version
neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land in which you sojourn.

King James Version
Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.

English Standard Version
You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.'

New American Standard Bible
'You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed nor plant a vineyard, nor own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, so that you may live many days in the land where you live as strangers.'

New Century Version
Also you must never build houses, plant seeds, or plant vineyards, or do any of those things. You must live only in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are wanderers.'

Amplified Bible
'Nor shall you build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard or own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners (temporary residents).'

World English Bible
neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land in which you sojourn.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seede, nor plant vineyarde, nor haue any, but all your dayes ye shall dwell in tentes, that ye may liue a long time in the land where ye be strangers.

Legacy Standard Bible
And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but tents you shall inhabit all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.'

Berean Standard Bible
Nor are you ever to build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Instead, you must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live a long time in the land where you sojourn.'

Contemporary English Version
or build houses or plant crops and vineyards. Instead, you must always live in tents and move from place to place. If you obey this command, you will live a long time."

Complete Jewish Bible
Also you are not to build houses, sow seed, or plant or own vineyards. Rather, you are always to live in tents; so that you may live a long time in the land, in which you are not citizens.'

Darby Translation
neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor shall ye have [any]; but all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land where ye sojourn.

Easy-to-Read Version
Also you must never build houses, plant seeds, or plant vineyards. You must never do any of those things. You must live only in tents. If you do that, you will live a long time in the land where you move from place to place.'

George Lamsa Translation
Neither shall you build houses for yourselves nor sow seed nor plant vineyards nor have any; but you shall dwell in tents all your days; for you shall live many days in the land where you sojourn.

Good News Translation
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.

Lexham English Bible
And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard, and it shall not be for you, but in tents you shall live all your days, so that you may live many days on the surface of the land where you are dwelling as aliens.'

Literal Translation
And you shall not build a house nor sow seed, nor plant a vineyard, nor shall there be anything to you; but all your days you shall live in tents, so that you may live many days on the face of the land where you are residing.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
yee ye shall haue no vynyardes: but for all youre tyme ye shall dwell in tetes, yt ye maye lyue loge in the lode, wherin ye be straugers.

American Standard Version
neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land wherein ye sojourn.

Bible in Basic English
And you are to make no houses, or put in seed, or get vine-gardens planted, or have any: but all your days you are to go on living in tents, so that you may have a long life in the land where you are living as in a strange country.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land wherein ye sojourn.

King James Version (1611)
Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant Uineyard, nor haue any: but all your dayes ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may liue many dayes in the land where ye be strangers.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Yea ye shall haue no vineyardes: but for al your tyme ye shall dwel in tentes, that ye may liue long in the land wherin ye be straungers.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Nevertheless hear ye the word of the Lord which I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people.

English Revised Version
neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land wherein ye sojourn.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and ye schulen not bilde an hous, and ye schulen not sowe seed, and ye schulen not plaunte vynes, nether schulen haue, but ye schulen dwelle in tabernaclis in alle youre daies, that ye lyue many daies on the face of erthe, in which ye goen in pilgrymage.

Update Bible Version
neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land wherein you sojourn.

Webster's Bible Translation
Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have [any]: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye [are] strangers.

New English Translation
Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one. Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will live a long time in the land that you wander about on.'

New King James Version
You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.'

New Life Bible
You must never build a house. You must never plant seeds. And you must never plant a grape-field or own one. But you must always live in tents. Then you will live many days in the land where you have come to.'

New Revised Standard
nor shall you ever build a house, or sow seed; nor shall you plant a vineyard, or even own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you reside.'

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
nor house, shall ye build nor, seed, shall ye sow, nor vineyard, shall ye plant, neither shall ye have them, - but in tents, shall ye dwell, all your days, that ye may live many days on the face of the soil where ye are sojourning.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Neither shall ye build houses, nor sow reed, nor plant vineyards, nor have any: but you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may live many days upon the face of the earth, in which you are strangers.

Revised Standard Version
you shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.'

Young's Literal Translation
and a house ye do not build, and seed ye do not sow, and a vineyard ye do not plant, nor have ye any; for in tents do ye dwell all your days, that ye may live many days on the face of the ground whither ye are sojourning.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but in tents you shall dwell all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.'

Contextual Overview

¹ This is the message the Lord gave Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah: ² "Go to the settlement where the families of the Recabites live, and invite them to the Lord 's Temple. Take them into one of the inner rooms, and offer them some wine." ³ So I went to see Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah and grandson of Habazziniah and all his brothers and sons—representing all the Recabite families. ⁴ I took them to the Temple, and we went into the room assigned to the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God. This room was located next to the one used by the Temple officials, directly above the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum, the Temple gatekeeper. ⁵ I set cups and jugs of wine before them and invited them to have a drink, ⁶ but they refused. "No," they said, "we don't drink wine, because our ancestor Jehonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine. ⁷ And do not build houses or plant crops or vineyards, but always live in tents. If you follow these commands, you will live long, good lives in the land.' ⁸ So we have obeyed him in all these things. We have never had a drink of wine to this day, nor have our wives, our sons, or our daughters. ⁹ We haven't built houses or owned vineyards or farms or planted crops. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed all the commands of Jehonadab, our ancestor.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

all: Jeremiah 35:10, Genesis 25:27, Leviticus 23:42, Leviticus 23:43, Nehemiah 8:14-16, Ephesians 5:18, Hebrews 11:9-13, 1 Peter 2:11

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 35:9 - General Hosea 12:9 - yet

Cross-References

Genesis 28:13
At the top of the stairway stood the Lord , and he said, "I am the Lord , the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants.

Genesis 28:19
He named that place Bethel (which means "house of God"), although it was previously called Luz.

Genesis 28:22
And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me."

Genesis 35:1
Then God said to Jacob, "Get ready and move to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother, Esau."

Genesis 35:3
We are now going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone."

Genesis 35:4
So they gave Jacob all their pagan idols and earrings, and he buried them under the great tree near Shechem.

Genesis 35:5
As they set out, a terror from God spread over the people in all the towns of that area, so no one attacked Jacob's family.

Exodus 17:15
Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh-Nissi (which means "the Lord is my banner").

Judges 6:24
And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means "the Lord is peace"). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.

Ezekiel 48:35
"The distance around the entire city will be 6 miles. And from that day the name of the city will be ‘The Lord Is There.'"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard,

nor have [any],.... That is, they were not to build houses, sow seed, or plant vineyards, for themselves, for their own profit and advantage; nor possess either of these through purchase or gift: all this was enjoined them, partly because they were strangers in the land of Israel, as is suggested in the latter part of the verse, and so were to have no inheritance in it; and partly because the pastoral life was what their ancestors had lived; and therefore Jonadab was desirous it should be continued in his posterity; as well as because by this means they would live not envied by the Israelites, among whom they were; since they did not covet to get any part of their possessions into their hands; as also these being their circumstances, upon any public calamity, as sword, famine, or pestilence, they could more easily remove to other places; and likewise, by observing these rules, would not be liable to some sins, as drunkenness, worldly mindedness, c. which are often the cause of great calamities. The Essenes, a sect among the Jews afterwards, seem in some things to have copied after these Rechabites:

but all your days ye shall dwell in tents which they could move from place to place, for the convenience of pasture for the cattle, the business they were brought up in, and were always to exercise:

that ye may live many days in the land where ye [be] strangers; for they were not Israelites, as before observed, but Kenites, the descendants of Jethro; they were proselytes of the gate only; and now, partly on account of their obedience to parents, which had annexed to it the promise of long life in the land in which they lived; and partly because they would, by such a course of life, give no umbrage to, nor raise any jealousy in, the minds of the inhabitants of it, they might expect a continuance in it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wine is the symbol of a settled life, because the vine requires time for its growth and care in its cultivation, while the preparation of the wine itself requires buildings, and it then has to be stored up before it is ready for use. The drink of nomads consists of the milk of their herds.

Jeremiah 35:7

Strangers - Because not of Jewish blood, though wandering in their territory.