¹⁵ After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab^(A) son of Rekab,^(B) who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, “Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?”

“I am,” Jehonadab answered.

“If so,” said Jehu, “give me your hand.”^(C) So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot.

¹⁶ The descendants of Moses’ father-in-law,^(A) the Kenite,^(B) went up from the City of Palms^[a](C) with the people of Judah to live among the inhabitants of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.^(D)

¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jehonadab son of Rekab will never fail^(A) to have a descendant to serve^(B) me.’”

² “Go to the Rekabite^(A) family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms^(B) of the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink.”

³ So 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. ⁴ I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God.^(C) It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum^(D) the doorkeeper.^{(E) 5} Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink some wine.”

⁶ But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab^[a](F) son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine.^{(G) 7} Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents.^(H) Then you will live a long time in the land^(I) where you are nomads.’ ⁸ We have obeyed everything our forefather^(J) Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine

¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites,^(A) the descendants of Hobab,^(B) Moses’ brother-in-law,^[a] and pitched his tent by the great tree^(C) in Zaanannim^(D) near Kedesh.

⁶ Then he said to the Kenites,^(A) “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

⁶ this Ezra^(A) came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted^(B) him everything he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.^(C)