Recah (Hastings' Dictionary)

In a genealogy contained in 1 Ch 4, the sc>r» of Eshton (v.'-) are described as 'the men of Recall' (nj"! •?'{>!), a place wliich is not mentioned elsewhere in the OT, and is quite un- known. The h\X has H'V-qxi^, A 'Vri<pi. RECEIPT OF CUSTOM (rtXcii-io^ RV 'place of toll'), Mt 9», Alk 2'\ Lk 5". See PUBMCAN, Taxes, Toll. For ' receipt ' in the sense of ' place for receiving,' see Mandeville, Travels, 1 12, ' Men have made a litj'lle Resceyt, besj'de a Pylere of that Chirche, for to resceyve the OU'rynges of Pil- grymes' j and Sliaks. Macbeth, I. vii. (J6— ' -Memory, the warder of the brain. Shall be a fume, aud the receipt of tta&QU A limbeck only.' RECHAB, RECHABITE8 (=pn, 't [a, D';;-in n'3 ("J?), 2r v;k: 1,.\X 'P,xd;3 [B in 2S 4»-«-» T^xd, in 1 Ch 2» 'Pifxd] ; and 'Apxafiei" in B, 'AXxa^eii' or Xapa^ely in A, 'Paxa^dy in Q ; ^'ulg. Itciluib, Rcchabitte). — Rikhiibh is often explained as mean- ing 'a rider,' on camels, i.e. a name for a nomadic tril>e. Tlie names :3n3 (of a man), Vkist (of a god), are found in Aramaic inscriptions (Lidzbarski, Nordsem. J-:/nr/raph. pp. 246, 309). The biblical Rtknnbh may be a contraction for Sxaai. 1. Rechab (in Jos. Ant. vn. ii. 1, Qdwos) ben- Rimnion the Beerothite, a captain of one of the ' bands ' following Inhbosheth. He and Baanah • Wliich, however, thou^ch only according to P, had taken place three to four yearn pruvioujily (17i<' 2^ 'ii}^). murdered Ishbosheth, carried the news to David, and were jmt to death by his orders; 2S 4'- J- (Budde). Cf. Baanah, Ishbosheth. 2. 3. Rechab in 1 Ch 2" ' Ilammath, the father of the house of Rechab,' and Recliab in Neh 3', ' Malchijah ben-Rechab,' sometimes reckoned as separate individuals, are to be identified with the following — 4. Recliab, Rechabites. — A clan of the Kenites, in later times, probably after the Return from the Captivitj', incorporated in the tribe of Judah, i.e. in the restored Jewish community in Palestine, 1 Ch2»-». The \iew that the Rechabites were a relifdous sect, founded by Jehonadab (2 K lo'."'-, Jer 35), is improbable ; althoufjh DiUraann, Oehler, Scbultz, etc., speak of him aa ' the founder of the Rechabites.' It is not likely that the founder of the Rechabites would himself be described aa btn-lUx/tab' \ more- over, I Ch '.i^ speaks of liammath (AV Hemath) aa the ' father of the house of Rechab. This clan is traced back (1 Ch 2") to Hammath (n';^='hot spring,' LXX B Mc(7i;A«i, A Al/idO), a descendant of Hur, the son of Caleb, i.e. a clan of the Calebite branch of the Kenites. The view of Bertheau (m loco), that Rechab was the actual father and Hammath the grandfather of the Jehonadab of 2 K 10, etc., is contrary to all analogy. Jos 19" (P) mentions a town llammalh ill Naphtali. As a settlement of Kenites under Hcber and Jael existed somewhere in that district in the time of Deborah (Jg 4" 5-'^), and the Rechab- ites belonged to the Northern Kingdom in tlie time of Jehu, it is possible that the Rechabites had some connexion with this town before they migrated to Judah. It is clear, however, from Jer 35 that they were a nomad tribe up to the fall of the Southern Kingdom. Moreover, according to Kittel (SBOT), 1 CU 2" is part of a late addition to Clironicles. The Recli.ibites appear in the UT on three occasions. Pirst, in the person of Jehonadab ben-Rechab (i.e. 'the Rechabite'), in 2K 10""-. Jehonadab showed his zeal for the exclusive wor- ship of Jehovah by associating himself with Jehu in liis fierce persecution of the devotees of Baal. Josephus reproduces the biblical narrative in Ant, IX. vi. 6, and mentions Jehonadab, but does not sa3' that he was a Rechabite. The second incident is narrated in Jer 35. Some time after the reign of Jehu, probably about the period of the Fall of Samaria, the Rechabites had migr.-itcd to Judah. NVhen Nebuchadrezz.ar invaded Judali in the reign of Jehoiakim, the Rechabites took refuge in Jeru- salem, probably encainjjing in some open space within the walls. Jeremiah utilized their presence to provide an object-lesson for his fellow-country- men. Amongst other prohibitions, their clan-laws forbade them to drink wine. The prophet invited the clan under their chief, Jaazaniah ben-Jeremiah ben-Habazziniah,toMieelhim in a chamber attached to the temple, and ollcred them wine. They refused on the ground that their 'fatlier' Jonadab ben- Rechab had forbidden them to drink wine, build houses, sow seed, or plant vineyards, and had com- manded them to live in tents. They stated that they had always obeyed the.se conimands, and had entered Jerusalem only through siieer necessity. Josephus does not reproduce this incident, nor does he anj'where mention the Rechabites. The Rechabites therefore regarded Jonadab much as the Israelites regarded Mose.s. They traced to him their clan-law. It is not likely, however, that ho originated the customs which he made permanently binding. In his time the Rechabites, of whom he w;ib doubtless chief, were a nomad clan pasturing their Hocks in the less occupied districts of the Northern Kingdom ; they anil their chief werezealous worshippers of Jehovah. In the natural course of events iluy would have followed the example of the Israelites, once theil 204 RECFIAB, RECHABITES RKCOXCILIATIOX fellow-nomads, and settled down as farmers and townsmen. I'rohably the process was beginning in tlie time of Jonadab; but that chief nipped it in the bud, and induced his followers to make their ancient nomadic habits matters of religious obli- gation. He had no leanings to asceticism, and his ordinances were not intended to make his followers ascetics. He forbade wine, but the term ' wine ' is to be understood strictly ; there is no prohibition of any other intoxicant. His motives would be two- fold. First, the nomad regards agriculture and city life as meaner, less manly, less spiritual than his own. Jonadab wished to keep his clan to the higher life. Moreover, when the Israelites surren- dered nomad life to settle on the land and in towns, they corrupted their worship of Jehovah by com- bining it with the superstitious and immoral rites of the Canaanite baals, to whom, as they thought, they owed their corn and wine and oil, Hos 2". Recently, nnder Ahab and Jezebel, the worship of Baal had greatly developed. The cultivation of corn and of the \'ine seemed to lead directly to baal-worship ; and it would seem to Jonadab that by cutting ort' his people from any connexion with agriculture he would preserve the purity and sim- plicity of their ancient worship of Jehovah. Probably the Rechabites were still in Jerusalem when tlie city was taken by Nebuchadrezzar, and some of them shared the Captivity and the Return of the Israelites. Under stress of circumstances, they would be obliged to linally surrender their ancestral customs, so that in Neh 3'^ we tind Malchijah the Rechabite engaged under Nehemiah in rebuildin'' the walls of Jerusalem. Malchijah is styled 'ruler of the district of Beth-liaccherem,' i.e. of the ' House of the Vinej-ard.' The very obscure verse 1 Ch 2" describes ' The families of scribes that dwelt at Jabez' — a town in Judah — ' the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Succathites,' as ' Kenites that came of Hammath, the father of the house of Recliab.' This points to the settle- ment of some Recliabites in late post-exilic times at Jabez as 'scribes.' The Vulgate regards the words rendered ' Tirathites,' etc., as titles of three classes of scribes, ' canentes atqueresonantes, et in tabemaculiscominoianles ' = ' singers, makers of an echo or of a ringing sound [? chorus], and dwellers in tents,' but the words are proper names (so LXX), and denote three clans of the men of Jabez. The promise of Jer 3d""- that because the Rechabites had kept the laws of Jonadab, ' Jonadab ben-Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever,' might lead some later Recliabites to revert to their ancient clan customs. It would also lead those wlio lived like other Jews to keep up the memory of their descent from the ancient Rechabites. .Jeremiah does not expressly state that the fulfilment of his promise is dependent on the continued observance of the laws of Jonadab. Rut, on the other hand, tliis promise and its im- plied conditions wovild naturally lead communities or individuals which observed some or other of these laws to adopt the name ' Rechabite,' and to imagine a genealogy connecting them with Rechab. Thu.5, in modern time, a Total Abstinence Society, whose members live in houses and do not abjure corn or oil, styles itself the 'Rechabites.' Probably this is the explanation of the statement of Heges- ippus {ap. Eus. BE ii. 23), that ' one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, the son of Rechabim, who are mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet,' protested against the murder of James the Just, especially as Epijilianius (//<cr. Ixxviii. 14) substitutes symeon the brother of James for the Rechabite (so E. H. Perowne in Smith's DB). The name had become a term for an ascetic A similar view explains the fact that travellers — Benjamin of Juda'a, 12th cent. ; WolH', 1829 ; Pierotti, c. 1860— have found tribes in Syria and Arabia claiming the name Rechabite and professing to observe the laws of Jonadab. These tribes are probably connected with the ancient Rechabites in just the same way as the Total Abstinence Society mentioned above. Moreover, as words for ' horseman,' ' camel-rider,' in Heb., Aram., and .\rab., are derived from the root rich, it is easy to see how tribes might be called ' Rechabites without any connexion, real or imaginary, with the Old Testament clan. In Ps 71 (LXX 70) the L.XX has the title Tv AcLveLd, vluiv 'luvaod^ (R 'ApuvaSdfj.), Kal tujv irpihrtav aixf-a'^t^icOii'Toit', ' To David, of the Bne Jonadab (R Aminadam, i.e. Aniinadab) and of those lirsl can'ied away captive.' This title has sometiim' been adduced as evidence of the existence and im- portance of the Rechabites in the 3rd or 2nd cent. But the origin, text, and meaning of the title are too uncertain to warrant any such conclusion. Jonadab may be the cousin of David ; or, as the reading of li suggests, a scribe's error for soma other name. The devotion of the Rechabites to Jehovah is illustrated by the zeal of Jonadab and by the fact that all the names of individual Rechabites known to us include the Divine name Jehovah, viz. Habazziniah, Jaazaniah, J(eh)onadab, Jeremiah, and Malchijah. It has generally been supposed that the Kenites were led to adopt the worship of Jehovah through their association with the Israel- ites ; and that the zeal of Jonadab, like that of Jehu, was inspired by the teaching of Elijah and Elisha. But recent scholars, e.g. Budde, have pointed out the close association of Jeliovah with Sinai, and of Moset, with the Kenites (see Jethro, IIOBAB), and have suggested that the Israelites adopted the worship ol Jehovah from the Kenites, and that the Kenites, and therefore the Rechab- ites, were by ancient practice and tradition the most devoted followers of Jehovah in Israel ; hence the zeal of Jonadab. It should be noted, however, that the only direct evidence for the connexion of the Rechabites with the Kenites ii the very late and obscure passage in Chronicles. As the Rechabite laws are simply the ordinary customs of nomads, — for primitive nomads the regular use of wine was impossible, — it is easy to tind numerous parallels to them. Probably even the prohibition of wine is not strictly and directly religious, but merely a means for preserving the nomadic life. Hence Mohammed's prohibition of wine and similar laws or taboos (cf. iJ.S 4S4 f. ) are not real parallels. Ol others commonly cited ia the statement of DiodoiusSiculus{xi.\. 9«, c. 8 B.C.), that the Nabat,-ean Arabs forbade sowing seed, planting fruit-trees, using or building houses, under pain of death. Cf., further, Ji'.iion'adab, Jere- miah, Kenites, Tirathites, Shi.meathites, Suc- cathites. 5. In Jg 1" the LXX has for ' because they had chariots (rekhcbh) of iron,' 'because Rechab com- manded them ' ; an obvious mistake. LiTERATFRB. — W. H. Bennett, Jeremiah xxi.-lii. p. 44 ff. ; Budde, Het. of Igr. to the Exile, p. 19 ff. (for connexion of J" with the Kenites) ; Dillniann, OT Theol. p. 172 ; Oehler, OT ThfoL, Enjr. tr. ii. 195; E. H. Perowne, art. 'Rechabites' in Smith's OB (views of Patristic and other commentators, travellers' tales of ' Rechabites ' in Syria and Arabia) ; Schultz. OT Theol., Eng. tr. L 91, 18S; Smen'd, Atttest. lieligion»jesch.i 93 1. ; /i.S484t. W. H. Bennett.