RECHABITES, or SONS OF RECHAB

This article appears in Volume V22, Page 952 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: RAY-RHU

RECHABITES, or SONS OF RECHAB , a sort of religious order among the Israelites in some respects analogous to the NAZARITES (q.v.), with whom they shared the

rule

RULE

abstinence

ABSTINENCE (from Lat. abstinere, to abstain)

from wine. They also eschewed the luxuries and pursuits of settled life, and lived in tents, refusing to sow grain as well as to plant vineyards. They represent a protest against the contemporary Canaanite civilization and a reaction towards the simplicity of life which was felt more strongly in Judah or to the

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

of the Jordan than in the northern kingdom of

Israel

ISRAEL (Hebrew for " God strives " or " rules "; see Gen. xxxii. 28; and the allusion in Hosea xii. 4)

. Their " father," or founder, was that Jehonadab or Jonadab, son of Rechab, who encouraged Jehu to abolish the Tyrian Baal-

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

(2 Kings x.). The order founded by Jehonadab must from its constitution have soon become a sort of hereditary clan, and as such the "

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Rechab " appears in Judah after the fall of the northern kingdom and continued to observe the

ordinance

ORDINANCE
ORDINANCE, or ORDONNANCE

of Jehonadab till the approach of Nebuchadrezzar drove them for protection into Jerusalem (Jer.

xxxv

XXXV

.). Jeremiah promised them as a reward of their obedience that they should never lack a man to represent them (as a priest) before Yahweh, whence perhaps the later Jewish tradition that the Rechabites intermarried with the

Levites

LEVITES

and so entered the temple service.
Later references to them probably indicate that the term was used as meaning merely ascetes (Euseb., H. E. ii. 23), the particular form of asceticism (q.v.) being less essential. One may compare the modern society of total abstainers known as the " Rechabites." In i Chron. ii. 55 the "

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Rechab " is associated with the KENITES (q.v.) as a family of scribes. Their origin is ascribed to Ijammath (conceivably the Naphtalite city, Josh. xix. 35), but in 1 Chron. iv. 12 Rechab (so the LXX) is of Calebite descent.

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