Jeremiah 35

¹ The word addressed to Jeremiah by Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,

² ‘Go to the clan of the Rechabites and speak to them; bring them into one of the apartments of the Temple of Yahweh and offer them wine to drink’.

³ So I brought Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, with his brothers and all his sons: the whole Rechabite clan.

⁴ I took them to the Temple of Yahweh into the apartment of Ben-johanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God, a room near that of the officials, over the apartment of Maaseiah son of Shallum, guardian of the threshold.

⁵ I then set pitchers full of wine, and some cups, before the men of the Rechabite clan and said, ‘Drink some wine’.

⁶ They replied, ‘We do not drink wine, because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab gave us this order: “You must never drink wine, neither you nor your sons;

⁷ nor must you build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards, or own property; but you must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live long on the soil to which you are alien”.

⁸ We have punctiliously obeyed the orders of our ancestor, Jonadab son of Rechab, never drinking wine ourselves, nor our wives, our sons or our daughters,

⁹ not building houses to live in, owning neither vineyard nor field to sow,

¹⁰ living in tents. We have obeyed the orders of our ancestor Jonadab, respecting them in every particular.

¹¹ However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this country, we decided, “We must get away! We will go to Jerusalem to escape the army of the Chaldaeans and the army of Aram.” So here we are, living in Jerusalem.’

¹² Then the word of Yahweh was addressed to Jeremiah,

¹³ ‘Thus Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not learn the lesson and listen to my words? It is Yahweh who speaks.

¹⁴ The word of Jonadab son of Rechab ordering his sons to drink no wine has been kept; obedient to their ancestor’s command, they drink none even today. But to me, who spoke to you so urgently, so persistently, you have not listened.

¹⁵ I have sent you all my servants the prophets so persistently, so often, to say: Each of you turn from your evil way, and amend your actions, do not follow alien gods and serve them; then you will be able to stay on the soil I gave to you and your ancestors. But you would not listen to me.

¹⁶ The sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have kept the command their ancestor gave them, but this people has not listened to me.

¹⁷ And so – Yahweh, the God of Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: I will bring down on Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem all the disasters with which I have threatened them, because I spoke to them and they would not listen, called to them and they would not answer.”‘

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabite clan, ‘Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel says this, “Because you have obeyed the orders of Jonadab and kept all his rules and done all that he ordered you,

¹⁹ for this – thus says Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel – Jonadab son of Rechab shall never lack a male descendant to stand in my presence”‘.