Jeremiah 35:1-11

The Rekabites 1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD during the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:

2“Go to the Rekabite family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the house of the LORD and give them wine to drink.” 3So I went to get Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the whole family of the Rekabites. 4I 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, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper.

5Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink some wine.” 6But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab Hebrew Jonadab, a variant of Jehonadab; here and often in this chapter son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. 7Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’ 8We have obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine 9or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. 10We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us.

11But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian Or Chaldean and Aramean armies.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”