Judah's people should learn a lesson from Rekab's descendants
1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. 2 He said, ‘Go to the place where Rekab's descendants live. Ask them to come to the Lord's temple. Take them into one of the temple's small rooms. Give them some wine to drink.’
3 So I went to meet with Rekab's descendants. They were Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah and grandson of Habazziniah. I also met with Jaazaniah's brothers and all his sons. Those were all the descendants of Rekab. 4 I took them to the Lord's temple. I took them into the room where the disciples of the prophet Hanan lived. He was the son of Igdaliah. That room was next to the room where the temple officers lived. It was also above the room where Shallum's son Maaseiah lived. He was one of the guards for the doors of the temple. 5 I put some jars of wine and some cups in front of Rekab's descendants. I said to them, ‘Drink some wine.’
35:3This was a different man who was called Jeremiah. He was not the prophet Jeremiah.
6 They replied, ‘We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab, son of Rekab, said to us, “You and your descendants must never drink wine. 7 You must not build houses. You must not plant seed in fields to grow crops. You must not plant vines or have a vineyard. Instead, you must always live in tents. If you live in that way, you will live for a long time as you travel around in the land.”
8 We have obeyed all the rules that our ancestor Jonadab gave to us. Our wives and our children have also obeyed them. We have never drunk wine. 9 We have never built houses to be our homes. We have no fields or vineyards and we grow no crops. 10 We have always lived in tents. So we have completely obeyed our ancestor Jonadab. We have done everything that he commanded us to do.
