The New Student's Reference Work/Rechabites, The

Rechabites, The, a family descended from Hammath, the progenitor of the house of Rechab; otherwise known as the Kenites (I Chron. ii:55). It is recorded in Jeremiah (Jer. xxxv) that the prophet took some Rechabites into the temple and offered them wine to drink and that they declined on the ground that Jhonadab, son of Rechab, their ancestor, had commanded them not to drink wine or other strong drink, to live in houses or to sow seeds or plant vineyards, and had enjoined them to dwell in tents all their days. It appears from other passages in The Bible that the Rechabites were a people who endeavored to resist the customs of settled life in Palestine by maintaining a nomadic ideal; that they existed at different times in the northern and southern kingdoms; and that they were especially interested in the worship of Yhwh [Yahweh or Jehovah]. Their devotion to Yhwh is illustrated by the fact that all known names of individual Rechabites include the divine name. In modern times such societies as total abstinence societies, which observe some of the customs, style themselves Rechabites.