The Rechabites Commended

35 ^[a]The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoi′akim the son of Josi′ah, king of Judah: ² “Go to the house of the Rech′abites, and speak with them, and bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then offer them wine to drink.” ³ So I took Ja-azani′ah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazzini′ah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rech′abites. ⁴ I brought them to the house of the Lord into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdali′ah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Ma-asei′ah the son of Shallum, keeper of the threshold. ⁵ Then I set before the Rech′abites pitchers full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine.” ⁶ But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jon′adab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons for ever; ⁷ you shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ ⁸ We have obeyed the voice of Jon′adab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, ⁹ and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed; ¹⁰ but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed and done all that Jon′adab our father commanded us. ¹¹ But when Nebuchadrez′zar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chalde′ans and the army of the Syrians.’ So we are living in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? says the Lord. ¹⁴ The command which Jon′adab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept; and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. ¹⁵ I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. ¹⁶ The sons of Jon′adab the son of Rechab have kept the command which their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. ¹⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.”

¹⁸ But to the house of the Rech′abites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jon′adab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done all that he commanded you, ¹⁹ therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jon′adab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.”

The Scroll Read in the Temple

36 In the fourth year of Jehoi′akim the son of Josi′ah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josi′ah until today. ³ It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

⁴ Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neri′ah, and Baruch wrote upon a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had spoken to him. ⁵ And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, “I am debarred from going to the house of the Lord; ⁶ so you are to go, and on a fast day in the hearing of all the people in the Lord’s house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll which you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities. ⁷ It may be that their supplication will come before the Lord, and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” ⁸ And Baruch the son of Neri′ah did all that Jeremiah the prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.

⁹ In the fifth year of Jehoi′akim the son of Josi′ah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord. ¹⁰ Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemari′ah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.

The Scroll Read in the Palace

¹¹ When Micai′ah the son of Gemari′ah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, ¹² he went down to the king’s house, into the secretary’s chamber; and all the princes were sitting there: Elish′ama the secretary, Delai′ah the son of Shemai′ah, Elna′than the son of Achbor, Gemari′ah the son of Shaphan, Zedeki′ah the son of Hanani′ah, and all the princes. ¹³ And Micai′ah told them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people. ¹⁴ Then all the princes sent Jehu′di the son of Nethani′ah, son of Shelemi′ah, son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Take in your hand the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch the son of Neri′ah took the scroll in his hand and came to them. ¹⁵ And they said to him, “Sit down and read it.” So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶ When they heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear; and they said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.” ¹⁷ Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?” ¹⁸ Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.” ¹⁹ Then the princes said to Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.”

Jehoiakim Burns the Scroll

²⁰ So they went into the court to the king, having put the scroll in the chamber of Elish′ama the secretary; and they reported all the words to the king. ²¹ Then the king sent Jehu′di to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elish′ama the secretary; and Jehu′di read it to the king and all the princes who stood beside the king. ²² It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him. ²³ As Jehu′di read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. ²⁴ Yet neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words, was afraid, nor did they rend their garments. ²⁵ Even when Elna′than and Delai′ah and Gemari′ah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶ And the king commanded Jerah′meel the king’s son and Serai′ah the son of Az′ri-el and Shelemi′ah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.

Jeremiah Dictates Another

²⁷ Now, after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁸ “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoi′akim the king of Judah has burned. ²⁹ And concerning Jehoi′akim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord, You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?” ³⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoi′akim king of Judah, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. ³¹ And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.’”

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neri′ah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoi′akim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.

Achior Handed over to the Israelites

6 When the disturbance made by the men outside the council died down, Holofer′nes, the commander of the Assyrian army, said to Ach′ior and all the Mo′abites in the presence of all the foreign contingents:

² “And who are you, Ach′ior, and you hirelings of E′phraim, to prophesy among us as you have done today and tell us not to make war against the people of Israel because their God will defend them? Who is God except Nebuchadnez′zar? ³ He will send his forces and will destroy them from the face of the earth, and their God will not deliver them—we the king’s^[a] servants will destroy them as one man. They cannot resist the might of our cavalry. ⁴ We will burn them up,^[b] and their mountains will be drunk with their blood, and their fields will be full of their dead. They^[c] cannot withstand us, but will utterly perish. So says King Nebuchadnez′zar, the lord of the whole earth. For he has spoken; none of his words shall be in vain.

⁵ “But you, Ach′ior, you Am′monite hireling, who have said these words on the day of your iniquity, you shall not see my face again from this day until I take revenge on this race that came out of Egypt. ⁶ Then the sword of my army and the spear^[d] of my servants shall pierce your sides, and you shall fall among their wounded, when I return. ⁷ Now my slaves are going to take you back into the hill country and put you in one of the cities beside the passes, ⁸ and you will not die until you perish along with them. ⁹ If you really hope in your heart that they will not be taken, do not look downcast! I have spoken and none of my words shall fail.”

¹⁰ Then Holofer′nes ordered his slaves, who waited on him in his tent, to seize Ach′ior and take him to Bethu′lia and hand him over to the men of Israel. ¹¹ So the slaves took him and led him out of the camp into the plain, and from the plain they went up into the hill country and came to the springs below Bethu′lia. ¹² When the men of the city saw them,^[e] they caught up their weapons and ran out of the city to the top of the hill, and all the slingers kept them from coming up by casting stones at them. ¹³ However, they got under the shelter of the hill and they bound Ach′ior and left him lying at the foot of the hill, and returned to their master.

¹⁴ Then the men of Israel came down from their city and found him; and they untied him and brought him into Bethu′lia and placed him before the magistrates of their city, ¹⁵ who in those days were Uzzi′ah the son of Micah, of the tribe of Sim′eon, and Chabris the son of Gothon′iel, and Charmis the son of Mel′chiel. ¹⁶ They called together all the elders of the city, and all their young men and their women ran to the assembly; and they set Ach′ior in the midst of all their people, and Uzzi′ah asked him what had happened. ¹⁷ He answered and told them what had taken place at the council of Holofer′nes, and all that he had said in the presence of the Assyrian leaders, and all that Holofer′nes had said so boastfully against the house of Israel. ¹⁸ Then the people fell down and worshiped God, and cried out to him, and said,

¹⁹ “O Lord God of heaven, behold their arrogance, and have pity on the humiliation of our people, and look this day upon the faces of those who are consecrated to thee.”

²⁰ Then they consoled Ach′ior, and praised him greatly. ²¹ And Uzzi′ah took him from the assembly to his own house and gave a banquet for the elders; and all that night they called on the God of Israel for help.

The Campaign against Bethulia

7 The next day Holofer′nes ordered his whole army, and all the allies who had joined him, to break camp and move against Bethu′lia, and to seize the passes up into the hill country and make war on the Israelites. ² So all their warriors moved their camp that day; their force of men of war was one hundred and seventy thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry, together with the baggage and the foot soldiers handling it, a very great multitude. ³ They encamped in the valley near Bethu′lia, beside the spring, and they spread out in breadth over Dothan as far as Balba′im and in length from Bethu′lia to Cy′amon, which faces Esdrae′lon.

⁴ When the Israelites saw their vast numbers they were greatly terrified, and every one said to his neighbor, “These men will now lick up the face of the whole land; neither the high mountains nor the valleys nor the hills will bear their weight.” ⁵ Then each man took up his weapons, and when they had kindled fires on their towers they remained on guard all that night.

⁶ On the second day Holofer′nes led out all his cavalry in full view of the Israelites in Bethu′lia, ⁷ and examined the approaches to the city, and visited the springs that supplied their water, and seized them and set guards of soldiers over them, and then returned to his army.

⁸ Then all the chieftains of the people of Esau and all the leaders of the Mo′abites and the commanders of the coastland came to him and said, ⁹ “Let our lord hear a word, lest his army be defeated. ¹⁰ For these people, the Israelites, do not rely on their spears but on the height of the mountains where they live, for it is not easy to reach the tops of their mountains. ¹¹ Therefore, my lord, do not fight against them in battle array, and not a man of your army will fall. ¹² Remain in your camp, and keep all the men in your forces with you; only let your servants take possession of the spring of water that flows from the foot of the mountain— ¹³ for this is where all the people of Bethu′lia get their water. So thirst will destroy them, and they will give up their city. We and our people will go up to the tops of the nearby mountains and camp there to keep watch that not a man gets out of the city. ¹⁴ They and their wives and children will waste away with famine, and before the sword reaches them they will be strewn about in the streets where they live. ¹⁵ So you will pay them back with evil, because they rebelled and did not receive you peaceably.”

¹⁶ These words pleased Holofer′nes and all his servants, and he gave orders to do as they had said. ¹⁷ So the army of the Am′monites moved forward, together with five thousand Assyrians, and they encamped in the valley and seized the water supply and the springs of the Israelites. ¹⁸ And the sons of Esau and the sons of Ammon went up and encamped in the hill country opposite Dothan; and they sent some of their men toward the south and the east, toward Acr′aba, which is near Chusi beside the brook Mochmur. The rest of the Assyrian army encamped in the plain, and covered the whole face of the land, and their tents and supply trains spread out in great number, and they formed a vast multitude.

The Distress of the Israelites

¹⁹ The people of Israel cried out to the Lord their God, for their courage failed, because all their enemies had surrounded them and there was no way of escape from them. ²⁰ The whole Assyrian army, their infantry, chariots, and cavalry, surrounded them for thirty-four days, until all the vessels of water belonging to every inhabitant of Bethu′lia were empty; ²¹ their cisterns were going dry, and they did not have enough water to drink their fill for a single day, because it was measured out to them to drink. ²² Their children lost heart, and the women and young men fainted from thirst and fell down in the streets of the city and in the passages through the gates; there was no strength left in them any longer.

²³ Then all the people, the young men, the women, and the children, gathered about Uzzi′ah and the rulers of the city and cried out with a loud voice, and said before all the elders, ²⁴ “God be judge between you and us! For you have done us a great injury in not making peace with the Assyrians. ²⁵ For now we have no one to help us; God has sold us into their hands, to strew us on the ground before them with thirst and utter destruction. ²⁶ Now call them in and surrender the whole city to the army of Holofer′nes and to all his forces, to be plundered. ²⁷ For it would be better for us to be captured by them;^[f] for we will be slaves, but our lives will be spared, and we shall not witness the death of our babes before our eyes, or see our wives and children draw their last breath. ²⁸ We call to witness against you heaven and earth and our God, the Lord of our fathers, who punishes us according to our sins and the sins of our fathers. Let him not do this day the things which we have described!”

²⁹ Then great and general lamentation arose throughout the assembly, and they cried out to the Lord God with a loud voice. ³⁰ And Uzzi′ah said to them, “Have courage, my brothers! Let us hold out for five more days; by that time the Lord our God will restore to us his mercy, for he will not forsake us utterly. ³¹ But if these days pass by, and no help comes for us, I will do what you say.”

³² Then he dismissed the people to their various posts, and they went up on the walls and towers of their city. The women and children he sent home. And they were greatly depressed in the city.