Jeremiah - The Old Testament

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 of Yahweh and offer them wine to drink.'

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

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

⁵ I then set pitchers full 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 this order, "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 wine ourselves, 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 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 armies of the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans." So that is why we are living 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 inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will 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, so untiringly, you have not listened.

¹⁵ I have urgently and untiringly sent you all my servants the prophets to say: Turn back, each one of you, from your evil behaviour and amend your actions, do not follow other gods to serve them, and you will go on living 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 this people has not listened to me.

¹⁷ And so, Yahweh, God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, on Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem I am going to bring all the disaster which I have decreed for 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 your ancestor Jonadab and observed all his rules and done everything he ordered you to do,

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