5 Then I got bowls full of wine and some cups. I set them down in front of the men from the family line of Recab. I said to them, "Drink some wine."
6 But they replied, "We don't drink wine. That's because Jonadab gave us a command. He was the son of Recab. He was also one of our own people from long ago. He commanded, 'You and your children after you must never drink wine.
7 Also you must never build houses. You must never plant crops or vineyards. You must never have any of those things. Instead, you must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are wandering around.'
8 "We have done everything Jonadab, the son of Recab, commanded us to do. So we and our wives and our children have never drunk wine.
9 We have never built houses to live in. We've never had vineyards, fields or crops.
10 We've always lived in tents. We've completely obeyed everything Jonadab commanded our people of long ago.
11 "But Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, marched into this land. Then we said, 'Come. We must go to Jerusalem. There we can escape the armies of Babylonia and Aram.' So we have remained in Jerusalem."