Jonadab

Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,

Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,

Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare it in my sight so I may watch her and eat it from her hand.’”

But Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, spoke up: “My lord must not think they have killed all the sons of the king, for only Amnon is dead. In fact, Absalom has planned this since the day Amnon violated his sister Tamar.

So Jonadab said to the king, “Look, the sons of the king have arrived! It is just as your servant said.”

“We do not drink wine,” they replied, “for our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us, ‘Neither you nor your descendants are ever to drink wine.

And we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab in all he commanded us. So we have not drunk wine all our lives—neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters.

But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done exactly as our forefather Jonadab commanded us.

The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out. He commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk it to this very day because they have obeyed the command of their forefather. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you have not obeyed Me!

Yes, the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not listened to Me.

Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites: “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of your forefather Jonadab and have kept all his commandments and have done all that he charged you to do,

…this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab son of Rechab will never fail to have a man to stand before Me.’”