Jeremiah 35:1 - 35:11

The Rechabites Listen to Jonadab

The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 2 “Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.” 3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites, 4 and I brought them into the house of Yahweh, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was beside the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the doorkeeper. 5 Then I put before the men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine!” 6 But they said, “We will not drink wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall not drink wine, you or your sons, forever. 7 And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but tents you shall inhabit all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ 8 So we have listened to the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, 9 nor to build ourselves houses to inhabit; and we do not have vineyard or field or seed. 10 We have only inhabited tents and have listened and have done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 11 But it happened that when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, let us come to Jerusalem before the military force of the Chaldeans and before the military force of the Arameans.’ So we have inhabited Jerusalem.”

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