The family of Rekab
1When Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, was king_of_Judah, the Lord talked to me, Jeremiah, and He said: 2‘Jeremiah, go to the family of Rekab and talk to them. Ask them to come to one of the rooms at the temple and give them wine to drink.’
3I went to Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and all his brothers and his sons, and everyone in the Rekab family, 4and they came with me to the temple, to the room of the sons of Hanan, the man of God. Hanan was the son of Igdaliah. The room was next to the room of the officials and above the room of Maaseiah, son of Shallum. Maaseiah was the gatekeeper at the door of the temple. 5I took a few bowls of wine and cups and I put them in front of the Rekab family and said: ‘Drink some wine.’
6But they said: ‘We don't drink wine because our forefather, Jonadab, son of Rekab, told us: “You may never drink wine, you and your children. 7And you may not build houses to live in or sow wheat or plant vineyards. You must always live in tents so that you may live for a long time in the land where you are strangers.” 8We have done what our forefather, son of Rekab, told us. We have never drunk wine, we and our wives and our children, 9and we have not built houses to live in and we don't have vineyards or wheat_fields where we sow. 10We have lived in tents and we have done everything that our forefather Jonadab told us to do. 11But when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to our land, we said: “We must now go to Jerusalem and live there, away from the soldiers of the Babylonians and the Arameans.” ’
12Then the Lord talked to Jeremiah and said: 13‘I, the Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, say: Jeremiah, you must go and talk to the people of Judah and the people who live in Jerusalem. Tell them the Lord asks: “Why don't you learn and listen to Me? 14Jonadab, son of Rekab, told his descendants not to drink any wine, and they still obey their father and they do what he told them. But you, my people, don't obey Me. Again and again you don't do what I have told you. 15I sent a lot of my servants, the prophets, to you and I told you: Turn back to Me, all of you. Turn away from the things that are wrong, stop doing those bad things and live in the right way. Don't worship other gods, don't serve them, and then you will keep on living in the land that I gave to you and your forefathers. But you did not listen to Me. You did not obey Me.
16The descendants of Jonadab, son of Rekab, did what their fathers told them to do, but you did not obey Me. 17The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: I told you that very bad things would happen to Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem. I will make them happen now because I spoke to my people, but they did not listen to Me. I called them to come to Me, but they did not answer Me.” ’
18Then Jeremiah said to the family of Rekab: ‘The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: “You have done everything that Jonadab your father told you to do, and you lived like he said. 19That is why I, the Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, say: There will always be one of the descendants of Jonadab, son of Rekab, who will serve Me.” ’
