Jeremiah 35:1-11

Amplified Bible

The Rechabites’ Obedience

35 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: ² “Go to the house of the ^[a]Rechabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the [side] chambers; then give them [who are pledged not to drink wine] some wine to drink.” ³ So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites, ⁴ and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum the doorkeeper. ⁵ Then I set before the men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.” ⁶ But they said, “We will not drink wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us: ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever. ⁷ Nor shall you build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard or own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners (temporary residents).’ ⁸ We have obeyed the words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, in all our days we have never drunk wine, nor have our wives, our sons, or our daughters, ⁹ nor have we built ourselves houses to live in; nor do we have vineyards or fields or seed. ¹⁰ We have lived only in tents, and have obeyed and done [everything] according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. ¹¹ But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans [who rule Babylon] and for fear of the army of the Arameans.’ So we have lived in Jerusalem.”