Jeremiah 35

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from 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 rooms of the Temple ofYahweh and offer them wine to drink.'

³ So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, with his brothers and al his sons, the wholeRechabite clan,

⁴ and brought them to the Temple of Yahweh into the room of Ben-Johanan son of Igdaliah, a man ofGod, which was next to that of the chief men, above the room of Maaseiah son of Shal um, guardian of thethreshold.

⁵ I then set pitchers ful of wine, and some cups, before the members of the Rechabite clan and said,'Drink some wine.'

⁶ But they replied, 'We do not drink wine, because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab gave us thisorder, "You must not drink wine, neither you nor your sons for ever;

⁷ nor must you build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards or own them, but 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 wineourselves, nor our wives, our sons or our daughters,

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

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

¹¹ However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this country, we decided, "We must getaway! We will go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans." So that is why we areliving in Jerusalem.'

¹² Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah as follows,

¹³ 'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitantsof Jerusalem: Wil you never learn the lesson and listen to my words, Yahweh demands?

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

¹⁵ I have urgently and untiringly sent you al my servants the prophets to say: Turn back, each one ofyou, from your evil behaviour and amend your actions, do not fol ow other gods to serve them, and you wil go onliving on the soil I gave to you and your ancestors. But you have not paid attention or listened to me.

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

¹⁷ And so, Yahweh, God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, on Judah and the citizens of JerusalemI am going to bring al the disaster which I have decreed for them, because I spoke to them and they would notlisten, cal ed to them and they would not answer." '

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabite clan, 'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Becauseyou have obeyed the orders of your ancestor Jonadab and observed al his rules and done everything heordered you to do,

¹⁹ therefore, Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Jonadab son of Rechab wil never lack amale descendant to stand before me for ever." '