Jeremiah 35

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiʹakim the son of Josiʹah, king of Judah: ²“Go to the house of the Reʹchabites, and speak with them, and bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink.” ³So I took Ja-azaniʹah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniʹah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Reʹchabites. ⁴I brought them to the house of the Lord into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliʹah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Ma-aseiʹah the son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold. ⁵Then I set before the Reʹchabites pitchers full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine.” ⁶But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonʹadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons for ever; ⁷you 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.’ ⁸We have obeyed the voice of Jonʹadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, ⁹and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed; ¹⁰but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed and done all that Jonʹadab our father commanded us. ¹¹But when Nebuchadrezʹzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeʹans and the army of the Syrians.’ So we are living in Jerusalem.”

¹²Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? says the Lord. ¹⁴The command which Jonʹadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept; and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. ¹⁵I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. ¹⁶The sons of Jonʹadab the son of Rechab have kept the command which their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. ¹⁷Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.”

¹⁸But to the house of the Reʹchabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonʹadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done all that he commanded you, ¹⁹therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonʹadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.”