Jeremiah 35:1-11

Common English Bible

35 Jeremiah received the Lord’s word during the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son: ² Go to the Rechabite family and invite them to come to one of the rooms of the Lord’s temple. When they arrive, offer them some wine to drink. ³ So I took Jaazaniah, Jeremiah’s son and Habazziniah’s grandson, and his brothers and all his sons, and the whole Rechabite family. ⁴ I brought them to the room in the Lord’s temple assigned to the sons of Hanan, Igdaliah’s son, the man of God. The room was next to the one used by the chief officers and right above the room of Maaseiah, Shallum’s son, the temple doorkeeper.^{[a] 5} Then I set bowls full of wine before the Rechabites, along with several cups, and I said to them, “Have some.”

⁶ But they refused: “We don’t drink wine because our ancestor Jonadab, Rechab’s son, commanded us, ‘You and your children are never to drink wine; ⁷ nor are you to build or own houses or plant gardens and vineyards; rather, you are always to dwell in tents so you may live a long time in the fertile land you pass through.’ ⁸ We have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab, Rechab’s son, commanded us. No one in our household, including our wives and children, has ever had wine. ⁹ And we haven’t built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields, or crops. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents and done everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. ¹¹ But when Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, we said, ‘We better go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian and Aramean armies.’ That’s why we’re here in Jerusalem.”