When did the word of the Lord come to Jeremiah?

The incident recorded in Jeremiah 35:1–19 is introduced by saying that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. Later in the passage we learn that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has come up against the land (Jeremiah 35:11). So, this incident takes place towards the end of Jehoiakim’s reign, probably just before the Babylonian invasion of 598 BC.¹ This is some ten years before the events recorded in Jeremiah 34:1–22 and about five years after the events recorded in Jeremiah 36:1–32. The reversal of chronological order in these three chapters shows once again that material in the book of Jeremiah is largely arranged to serve the themes being discussed. The central theme in Jeremiah 34:1–36:32 is covenant obedience and the Rechabite narrative in Jeremiah 35 serves as a strong contrast to the disobedience of the people of Jerusalem in Jeremiah 34:1–22.