8-10. Our clan has always obeyed Jonadab's command. To this very day, we and our wives and sons and daughters don't drink wine or build houses or plant vineyards or crops. And we have lived in tents,
11. except now we have to live inside Jerusalem because Nebuchadnezzar has taken over the countryside with his army from Babylonia and Syria.
12-13. Then the Lord told me to say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:I, the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, want you to learn a lesson
14. from the Rechabite clan. Their ancestor Jonadab told his descendants never to drink wine, and to this very day they have obeyed him. But I have spoken to you over and over, and you haven't obeyed me!
15. You refused to listen to my prophets, who kept telling you, “Stop doing evil and worshipping other gods! Start obeying the Lord, and he will let you live in this land he gave your ancestors.”
16. The Rechabites have obeyed the command of their ancestor Jonadab, but you have not obeyed me,
17. your God. I am the Lord All-Powerful, and I warned you about the terrible things that would happen to you if you did not listen to me. You have ignored me, so now disaster will strike you. I, the Lord, have spoken.
18. Then the Lord told me to say to the Rechabite clan:I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You have obeyed your ancestor Jonadab,
19. so I promise that your clan will be my servants and will never die out.