Study Desk

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of ^(a)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

"Go to the house of the ^(b)Rechabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord , into one of the ^(c)chambers, and give them wine to drink."

Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites,

and I brought them into the house of the Lord , into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the ^(d)man of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, ^(e)the doorkeeper.

Then I set before the ^[a]men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, "^(f)Drink wine!"

But they said, "We will not drink wine, for ^(g)Jonadab the son of ^(h)Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall ⁽ⁱ⁾not drink wine, you or your sons, forever.

You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but in ^(j)tents you shall dwell all your days, that you may live ^(k)many days in the land where you ^(l)sojourn.'

We have ^(m)obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons or our daughters,

nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; and we ⁽ⁿ⁾do not have vineyard or field or seed.

We have only ^(o)dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and have done according to all that ^(p)Jonadab our father commanded us.

But when ^(q)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come and let us ^(r)go to Jerusalem before the army of the Chaldeans and before the army of the Arameans.' So we have dwelt in Jerusalem."