RECHABITES. The tribe or family of Ke nites, whom Jonadab, the son of Rechab, subjected to a new rule of life ; or rather bound to the con tinued 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 ob served them with great strictness for about 300 years, when we first become aware of their exist ence. Jeremiah brings some Rechabites into one of the chambers of the Temple, and sets before them pots full of wine, and cups, saying, ' Drink ye wine ;' on which it is well observed by Gataker and others that the prophet omits the usual formula, Thus saith the Lord,' which would have con strained obedience in men so pious as the Recha bites, even at the expense of infringing their rule of life. But now they answer, We will drink no wine ; for Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons for ever. Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any : but all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers' (Jer. xxxv. 6, 7). They added that to the present time they had observed these injunctions, although they had been con strained to take refuge in Jerusalem when the Chaldan armies swept the face of the land. The Vulgate, by translating all the proper names in Chron. ii. 55, has given currency to an impression that the Rechabites were employed in some of the inferior offices of the temple ; and has led to the inference that they were taken as captives to Baby lon, from which they returned, and resumed their duties under the second temple, Jabesh in Gilead being the chief place of their residence. There is no shade of authority, beyond this assumption of proper names as appellatives, for a statement every point in which is contrary to the probabilities of the case. The Septuagint, though prone to regard Hebrew proper names as appellatives, does not do so in this text, with the exception of Sopherites, which it renders by scribes,' in which it is followed by the A. V. But there is no apparent ground for thus taking one only as an appellative in a list of proper names, unless an intelligible sense could not be otherwise obtained. But the sense is better with this also as a proper name than as an appellative. We may then read, much as in Geddes' version, But the Sopherite families who inhabited Jabesh, the Tirathites, the Shimathites, and the Suchathites, were Kenites who came from Hemath Abi-Beth-Rechab.' The translator re
marks on the last words, do not translate these words, because I do not understand them. There is probably some corruption of the text. The literal version would he, Hemath, father of the house of Rechab.' This Rechab was doubtless the same from whom the Rechabites took their name ; and it appears to us that the text is far from mean ing to say that the families at Jabesh (whether scribes' or not) were Rechabites in the limited sense ; their residence at Jabesh being indeed con clusive against that notion : but that these families were Kenites descended from the Hemath who was also the progenitor of that Rechab from whom the Rechabites took their name. We doubt if a clearer explanation of this difficult text can be ob tained : and if so, it conveys no other information concerning the Rechabites than that their progeni tor was a descendant of Hemath, who was likewise the founder of other Kenite families.
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 simi lar habits of life, among whom, in the course of time, they lost their separate existence. The various attempts to identify them with the Assi deans, mentioned in the books of Maccabees (I Maccab. ii. 42 ; vii. 13 ; 2 Maccab. xiv. 6), and with the later Jewish sect of Essenes, will not bear examination. We can as little recognise as Recha bites the body of people in Arabia of whom Ben jamin of Tudela (Itinerary, i. ti2-114, ed. Asher), Niebuhr, Wolf (journals, ii. 276, 331-334 ; 17), and others, have given hearsay accounts. The details, however, whether correct or not, apply to Talmudical Jews more than to Rechabites. They are described as living in caverns and low houses, not in tents—and this in Arabia, where Bedouin habits would cease to be singular ; nor are any of the Rechabite rules observable in them except that of refraining from wine—an abstinence which ceases to be remarkable in Arabia, where no one does drink wine, and where, among the strongholds of Islam, it could probably not be ob tained without danger and difficulty. There were large numbers of Talmudical Jews in Arabia in the time of Mohammed, and these supposed Recha bites are probably descended from a body of them. It is to be hoped that some competent traveller will penetrate to the spot which they are said to inhabit, and bring back some more satisfactory accounts than we yet possess. (See Witsins, Dissert. de in Miscell. Sacra, ii. 176, seq. ; Carpzov,Atfiarat., p. ; Calmet, Dessert. sur les RIchabites, in Commentaire Litdral, vi. I8 21.)—J. K.