The Rekabites

35 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the reign of Jehoiakim^(A) son of Josiah king of Judah: ² “Go to the Rekabite^(B) family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms^(C) 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.^(D) It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum^(E) the doorkeeper.^{(F) 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](G) son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine.^{(H) 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.^(I) Then you will live a long time in the land^(J) where you are nomads.’ ⁸ We have obeyed everything our forefather^(K) Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine ⁹ or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops.^{(L) 10} We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us. ¹¹ But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded^(M) this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalem^(N) to escape the Babylonian^[b] and Aramean armies.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”