The Rechabites, though they dwelt among the Israelites, did not belong to any of their tribes; for they were Kenites, as appears from 1Ch 2:55, where the Kenites are said to have come of “Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.” These Kenites, afterward styled Rechabites, were of the family of Jethro, otherwise called Hobab, whose daughter Moses married; for “the children of the Kenite, Moses’s father-in-law,” it is said, “went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah, and dwelt among the people,” Jdg 1:16; and we read of “Heber the Kenite, who was of the children of Hobab, the father-in- law of Moses, who had severed himself from the Kenites,” or from the bulk of them who settled in the tribe of Judah, “and pitched his tent in the plain of Zaanaim,” Jdg 4:11. They appear to have sprung from Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah, Gen 25:2; for Jethro, from whom they are descended, is called a Midianite, Num 10:23. Of this family was Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, a man of eminent zeal for the pure worship of God against idolatry, who assisted King Jehu in destroying the house of Ahab, and the worshippers of Baal, 2Ki 10:15-16; 2Ki 10:23, &c. It was he who gave that rule of life to his children and posterity which we read of in Jer 35:6-7. It consisted of these three articles: that they should drink no wine; that they should neither possess nor occupy any houses, fields, or vineyards; that they should dwell in tents. This was the institution of the children of Rechab; and this they continued to observe for upward of three hundred years, from the time of Jehu to that of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, when Nebuchadnezzar coming to besiege Jerusalem, the Rechabites were obliged to leave the country and take refuge in the city. In Jeremiah 35, there is a promise made to this people, that Jonadab, the son of Rechab, should not want a man to stand before the Lord; that is, that his posterity should not fail: and to this day this tribe is found among the Arabians of the desert, distinct, free, and practising exactly the institutions of Jonadab, whose name they bear, and of whose institutions they boast. This is a remarkable instance of the exact fulfilment of a minute and isolated prophecy. See BENI KHAIBIR.
Re´chabites. The tribe or family of Kenites, whom Jonadab, the son of Rechab, subjected to a new rule of life; or rather bound to the continued observance of ancient usages which were essential to their separate existence, but which the progress of their intercourse with towns seemed likely soon to extinguish. By thus maintaining their independent existence as a pastoral people, they would keep themselves from being involved in the distractions and internal wars of the country, would be in no danger of becoming objects of jealousy and suspicion to the Israelites, and would be able at all times to remove from a country in which they were strangers. The Rechabites found so much advantage in these rules, that they observed them with great strictness for about 300 years, when we first become aware of their existence. Jeremiah put to the proof their adherence to their founder’s rules, and they stood the test (Jer 35:6-7).
What eventually became of the Rechabites is not known. The probability is that, when they found themselves no longer safe among the Hebrews, they withdrew into the desert from which they at first came, and which was peopled by men of similar habits of life, among whom, in the course of time, they lost their separate existence.
Scripture acquaints us, Jer 35:2-11, that Jonadab son of Rechab, in the time of Jehu king of Israel; laid an injunction on his posterity not to drink wine, not to build houses, not to plant vineyards, to have no lands, and to dwell in tents all their lives. This they continued to observe for above three hundred years; but in the last year of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar coming to besiege Jerusalem, the Rechabites were forced to take refuge in the city, though still lodging in tents. During this siege, Jeremiah received orders from the Lord to invite them into the temple, and to offer them wine to drink. They refused to partake of it; and their fidelity to their father’s injunction was a severe reproof to the Jews; and the divine promise concerning the perpetuity of the family, Jer 35:19, was undoubtedly fulfilled, though it may now be impossible to distinguish temm, as some profess to do, among the tribes of Central Arabia.\par
Rechabites (rĕ’káb-îtes or rĕk’ab-îtes). A Kenite tribe descended from Rechab. Jonadab, one of their chiefs, laid an injunction on his posterity to drink no wine, to build no houses, but to dwell in tents. This injunction they obeyed fully for 300 years; but upon the Chaldean invasion they were forced to quit the open country and live in Jerusalem. Jer 35:1-19. Afterwards they probably withdrew into the desert. For their obedience a promise was given them that their family should never be extinct. And accordingly, at the present day, there is an Arabian tribe who claim a descent from Rechab, and profess a modified Judaism.
[Re’chabites]
Descendants of Rechab, the father of Jonadab. The account of these people is given by themselves: they abstained from wine, and they did not build houses, nor sow seed. Being nomads they did not plant vineyards, nor had any; but all their days they dwelt in tents. Though called Rechabites, they trace their mode of life to what their ancestor Jonadab had commanded. When compelled to dwell in Jerusalem for fear of the Chaldeans and Syrians, Jeremiah called them together and offered them wine; but they refused to drink any, and gave the above explanation.
God instructed Jeremiah to hold up the obedience of the Rechabites as an example to the men of Judah. These men faithfully obeyed their father, whereas Judah had not obeyed their God . It was said of them that because of their faithfulness to their father’s commands Jonadab should not want a man to stand before God for ever. The Rabbis interpret this to signify that they should minister in the sanctuary, and say they became united to the Levites; but we find nothing of this in scripture. Jer 35:1-19. Travellers in the East have met with people who trace their origin to Rechab, and who appeal to the scripture as a proof of God having preserved them. There are still about 60,000 of them, dwelling in tents in the oases of the desert.
By: Executive Committee of the Editorial Board., George A. Barton, Wilhelm Bacher, Judah David Eisenstein
—Biblical Data:
Members of a family descended from Hammath, the progenitor of the house of Rechab; otherwise known as the Kenites (I Chron. ii. 55), who were the descendants of Hobab (Jethro), the father-in-law of Moses (Judges iv. 11). In Jeremiah (xxxv.) it is recorded that the prophet took some Rechabites into the Temple and offered them wine to drink, and that they declined on the ground that Jehonadab, son of Rechab, their ancestor, had commanded them not to drink wine or other strong drink, or to live in houses, or to sow seed, or to plant vineyards, and had enjoined them to dwell in tents all their days. Jeremiah used this fidelity of the Rechabites to their principles as an object-lesson in his exhortations to his contemporaries.
Jehonadab appears at an earlier point in the Bible as the companion of King Jehu when he slaughtered the prophets of Baal (comp. II Kings x. 15, 23). Jehonadab was apparently a champion of the worship of Yhwh as against that of Baal. After the Exile Malchiah, the Rechabite ruler of the district of Beth-haccerem, built a portion of the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. iii. 14, 15). In I Chron. (ii. 55) it is stated that certain people of Jabez in Judah were "the Kenites that came of Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab." It is clear from these passages that the Rechabites were a people who endeavored to resist the customs of settled life in Palestine by maintaining the nomadic ideal; that they existed at different times in both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms; that they were especially interested in the worship of Yhwh; and that the Chronicler connects them with the Kenites.
In the Talmud. —In Rabbinical Literature:
God's promise that the Rechabites "shall not want a man to stand before me forever" (Jer. xxxv. 19) is interpreted by R. Jonathan to mean that they shall become scribes and members of the Sanhedrin. Other rabbis say the Rechabites married their daughters to priests and had grandchildren in the priesthood (Yalḳ., Jer. 323). Jonathan's appears to be the accepted view, as the Rechabites became scribes (I Chron. ii. 55) and sat with the Sanhedrin in the granite chamber ("lishkat ha-gazit"; perhaps the same as the chamber of Hanan) of the Temple. The names of the subdivided families, the Tirathites, the Shemeathites, and the Suchathites (ib.), are appellations indicating their learning and (in the case of the last-named) their custom of living in tents (Mek., Yitro, ii. 60b; Sifre, Num. 78 [ed. Friedmann, p. 20a); Soṭah 11a). R, Nathan remarked that God's covenant with the Rechabites was superior to the covenant with David, inasmuch as David's was conditional (Ps. cxxxii. 12), while that with the Rechabites was without reservation (Mek., l.c.). The Talmud identifies "ha-yoẓerim" ("the potters"; I Chron. iv. 23) as the Rechabites, because they observed ("she-naẓeru") the commandment of their father (B. B. 91b). Evidently the Talmud had the reading "ha-noẓerim" (="diligent observers") instead of "ha-yoẓerim." This would explain the term "Migdal Noẓerim," the habitation of the Rechabites, in contrast with a "fenced city" (II Kings xvii. 9, xviii. 8). The appellation of "Noẓerim" or "Noẓerites" is perhaps changed from "Nazarites" as indicative of the temperate life of the Rechabites.
In the Second Temple.
The appointed time for the service of the Rechabites in the Temple was the 7th of Ab (Ta'an. iv. 5). After the destruction of the Second Temple, traces of the Rechabites are found in the pedigree of R. Jose b. Ḥalafta, the author of "Seder 'Olam," who claimed to be a direct descendant of Jehonadab ben Rechab (Gen. R. xcviii. 13).
According to Benjamin of Tudela.
Judah Löw b. Bezaleel, in his "Neẓaḥ Yisrael" (Prague, 1599), claims that the Jews in China are descended from the Rechabites and that they are referred to in Isa. xlix. 12 ("the land of Sinim"). Benjamin of Tudela (1160) found Rechabites in his travel: "Twenty-one days' journey from Babylon, through the desert of Sheba, or Al-Yemen, from which Mesopotamia lies in a northerly direction, are the abodes of the Jews who are called the Rechabites." He describes them as "an independent tribe. The extent of their land is sixteen days' journey among the northern mountains. They have large and fortified cities, with the capital city of Tema. Their nasi is Rabbi Hanan [a name suggestive of the chamber of Hanan]. The Rechabites make marauding expeditions in distant lands with their allies, the Arabs, who live in the wilderness in tents. The neighboring countries fear the Jews, some of whom cultivate the land, raise cattle, and contribute tithes for the men learned in the Law, for the poor of Palestine, and for the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, who, except on Sabbaths and holy days, neither eat meat nor drink wine, and who dress in black and live in caves." Benjamin's description of the Rechabites isambiguous, and, the text being unpunctuated, it is difficult to tell when he refers to the Rechabites, when to the Arabs, and when to the mourners of Zion. Probably the tents referred to are those of the Arabs, and the abstention from meat and wine applies to the mourners of Zion. The latter evidently were Karaites, who made frequent pilgrimages to Jerusalem in the tenth and eleventh centuries (See Pilgrimage).
The Rechabites were found also by the English missionary Dr. Wolff, in 1828, near Mecca in Arabia. He credits them with the observance of the pure Mosaic law. They speak Arabic and a little Hebrew. They are good horsemen, and number about 60,000.
Bibliography:
Lewisohn, Shorshe Lebanon, pp. 220-228, Wilna, 1841;
M. A. Ginsburg, Debir, i. 96-101, Warsaw, 1883;
L. de St. Aignan, La Tribu de Rechabites Retrouvée, Versailles, 1871;
The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, ed. Asher, London, 1840-41.
—Critical View:
According to Ewald, Schrader, Smend, and Budde, the Rechabites represented a reaction against Canaanitish civilization. As Budde points out, in the wilderness, or steppes, the religion of Yhwh was the religion of a simple nomadic people, devoid of the voluptuous ritual which the greater wealth of Canaan made possible (comp. "The New World," 1895, pp. 726-746; "Religion of Israel to the Exile," ch. i.). The Yhwh religion, he holds with Tiele and Stade, was the religion of the Kenites.
These Rechabites, a part of the Kenites, as even the late Chronicler remembered, bound themselves to maintain the nomadic ideal of life and the primitive simplicity of Yhwh's religion. This would explain the form of their life as depicted by Jeremiah, and the aid rendered by their ancestor to Jehu. If, however, this view Is correct, they are really much older than Jehonadab, the contemporary of Jehu. Budde supposes that Jehonadab did not originate, but revived or reimposed, the old rule of their brotherhood.
If they were Kenites, how came they in the Northern Kingdom at this time? The Kenites were dwellers on the southern borders of Judah until absorbed by that tribe (see Kenites; comp. I Sam. xxvii. 10, xxx. 29). The explanation is probably to be found in I Chron. ii. 55, which connects Rechabites with Hammath, a town at the hot springs by the Sea of Galilee, a little to the south of Tiberias (comp. Buhl, "Geographie des Alten Palästina," pp, 115, 226). Probably a colony of them settled at this point for a time, and so became residents of the Northern realm. The same reference connects them with Jabez in Judah. It is probable, therefore, that all were of one family. In the time of Nehemiah they were connected with Beth-haccerem, a town near Tekoah, southeast of Bethlehem. Budde has well shown the importance of the Rechabites for an understanding of the religion of Israel.
Bibliography:
Ewaid, Gesch. iii. 543 et seq.;
Smend, Alttestamentliche-Religionsgeschichte, 2d ed., pp. 93 et seq.;
Smith, Rel. of Sem. 2d ed., pp. 484 et seq.;
Budde, Religion of Israel to the Exile, ch. i.;
Dillmann, Old Testament Theology, p. 172;
Barton, Sketch of Semitic Origins, p. 277.
(Hebrew: square or chariot)
Rechab was the father of Jonadab who, with Jehu, exterminated the followers of Baal (4 Kings 10). He bade his descendants not to build houses, not to sow, not to plant vineyards, but to dwell in tents. Their fidelity in obeying these commands was praised by God himself and given as an example to the Jews (Jeremias 35).