The Recabite Family

35 When Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah. This was his message: ² “Jeremiah, go to the family of Recab. Invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the Temple of the Lord. Offer them wine to drink.”

³ So I went to get Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah.^[a] Jeremiah was the son of Habazziniah. And I gathered all of Jaazaniah’s brothers and sons. I gathered the whole family of the Recabites together. ⁴ Then I brought them into the Temple of the Lord. We went into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah. Hanan was a man of God. The room was next to the one where the officers stay. It was over the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum. Maaseiah was the doorkeeper in the Temple. ⁵ Then I put some bowls full of wine and some cups before the Recabite family. And I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

⁶ But the Recabite people answered, “We never drink wine. It is because of our ancestor Jonadab son of Recab. He gave us this command: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine. ⁷ Also you must never build houses, plant seeds or plant vineyards. You must never do any of those things. You must live only in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are a wanderer.’ ⁸ So we Recabites have obeyed everything Jonadab our ancestor commanded us. We never drink wine. And our wives, sons and daughters never drink wine. ⁹ We never build houses in which to live. And we never own fields or vineyards. And we never plant crops. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents. And we have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. ¹¹ But Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked the country of Judah. We said to each other, ‘Come, we must enter Jerusalem. This is so we can escape the Babylonian army and the Aramean army.’ So we have stayed in Jerusalem.”