5 I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine!”
6 But they said, “We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, forever.
7 You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, or have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you live as nomads.’
8 We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters;
9 and not to build houses for ourselves to dwell in. We have no vineyard, field, or seed;
10 but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
11 But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, ‘Come! Let’s go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Kasdim, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we will dwell at Jerusalem.’”