Nor have we built houses in which to live, and we have not owned any vineyards or fields or crops.
Parallel translations
- WEB and not to build houses for ourselves to dwell in. We have no vineyard, field, or seed;
- KJV Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:
- NKJV nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; nor do we have vineyard, field, or seed.
- NASB nor to build ourselves houses to live in; and we do not have a vineyard, a field, or seed.
- NLT We haven’t built houses or owned vineyards or farms or planted crops.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They have also kept the command to build no houses and own no vineyards or fields. Their obedience extends to every detail.
Overview
Faithful to Jonadab's instructions, they have refrained from settled life, owning no permanent property. Their consistency in even these difficult requirements shows wholehearted commitment. This complete obedience exposes by contrast the half-heartedness of God's covenant people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- 1 Tim 6:6Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.
- Jer 35:7Nor 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 wander.’
- Ps 37:16Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many who are wicked.
- 2 Kgs 5:26But Elisha questioned him, “Did not my spirit go with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to accept money and clothing, olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, menservants and maidservants?
- Num 16:14Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 35:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.