Jeremiah 35

The Example of the Rekabites

¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. ² “Go to the house of the Rekabites, and bring them into one of the rooms in the House of the Lord, and give them wine to drink.”

³ So I took Ja’azaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, along with his brothers and all his sons—the whole house of the Rekabites— ⁴ and I brought them into the House of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of God. It was next to the room of the officials that was above the room of Ma’asaiah son of Shallum, the doorkeeper. ⁵ I set bowls of wine and some cups before the men of the house of the Rekabites, and I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

⁶ But they said, “We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab son of Rekab commanded us: ‘You are not to drink wine, neither you nor your descendants, not ever. ⁷ Also, you are not to build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards, or own any of these things. You must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time on the land where you live as nomads.’ ⁸ We have obeyed what Jonadab son of Rekab, our ancestor, commanded us. We have never drunk wine—we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters. ⁹ We have never built houses to live in. We have no vineyards, fields, or crops. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents, and we have obeyed everything that Jonadab our ancestor commanded us. ¹¹ But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, we said, ‘Come on, we have to go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldeans and the Arameans.’ That is why we are living in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

¹⁸ Jeremiah said to the house of the Rekabites, “The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this. Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his instructions and done everything he commanded you, ¹⁹ the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says that Jonadab will never fail to have a man to serve me.”