Septuagint (i. e. our 71st Psalm), is worthy of notice; a psalm "of or for the sons of Jonadab, and the first who were carried captive;" that is, when Daniel, and his companions, and several others, were transported to Babylon. The authority of these titles it is unnecessary to discuss; but this one "being found in all the copies of the Septuagint affords reason to conclude, that there was such a tradition concerning the sons of Jonadab, when this version of the Psalms was made.' Waving, however, this conjecture, after such a promise as that by Jeremiah, we are gratified by finding this people survive even the captivity. Seventy years pass away, and the Jews return to Palestine; but so do the Rechabites, and still in character. As they had not been involved with the ten tribes, so they are not allowed to remain in the dispersion; and whether they were carried away with the chief of the captivity of Judah or not, they were among the first who returned to the Holy Land. "And the families of the Scribes," says the sacred historian, after the captivity; "the families of the Scribes, which dwelt at Jabez, the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites-these are the Kenites, that came of Hemath, the Father of the house of Rechab." According to another reading, the office, the character, and manners of this people are pointed out. "The race of the Scribes that dwelt at Jabez, called porters, obedient and dwelling in tents, are the Kenites," &c. The same opinion seems to have dictated the Vulgate translation:-" Cognationes quoque scribarum habitantium in Jabes, canentes, atque resonantes, et in taber

* Blaney.

naculis commorantes. Hi sunt Cinai, qui venerunt de Calore patris domus Rechab." This passage, therefore, however rendered, sufficiently identifies this singular race, whose history we have now traced down to the time of Ezra, from that of Moses,-a period of not less than from eleven to twelve hundred years!

It seems, however, we are not even then to bid the Rechabites farewell. Even at the present day they are supposed to be in existence; and when once the reported seat of this little tribe is properly visited, it is not improbable that this will lend peculiar force to the promise, and bring it to remembrance: "Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." Mr Wolfe, the missionary, himself a convert from Judaism to Christianity, is at present visiting the East. After going into Persia, if he survives, he intends to visit the alleged seat of the Rechabites. Meanwhile, writing from the spot where he first mentions this intention, he says,"There are at Mousul, on the banks of the Tigris, 200 families, who have one synagogue; one college for young men ; one high priest; and they are under the order of Shaul (Saul), the prince of the captivity, residing at Bagdad. All the Jews in this country believe that the Beni Khaibr, near Mecca and Medina (in Arabia), are the descendants of the ancient Rechabites. The Mufti from Merdeen gave me a long description of the Beni Khaibr; but as I have not seen them, I will not, at present, give you his description of them; they are, however, worthy of notice. Those Jews of Khaibr gave infinite trouble to Mohammed, and he never was able to compel them to embrace his religion.-See Sale's Note to

chap. 48. in the Alcoran, and D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale.* On my return from Persia, if the Lord will, I hope to go to Jidda, and from thence to Khaibr, accompanied by an Arab."+

Again, in his Journal of 27th June, 1824, from Bassora, on the Euphrates, having met with a Jew, named More Yehuda, born at Sanaa, in Yemen, Arabia, who informed him, that in that city there were 4000 families of Jews, he adds,-" He told me that the Jews at Sanaa might easily procure me access to the Rechabites, who are only eight days distant from them. He observed, that the Jews would bring me thither, with a subtility like that with which Jacob deceived Isaac his Father." After a long conversation with this man, who is a Jewish Rabbi, Mr W. adds,"The following fact was told me by the Jew, More Yehuda. Rabbi Gad of Jerusalem, set off, thirty-five years ago, 1789, with a caravan from Mokka to Sanaa. The Arabs composing the caravan were then at war with the Rechabites, Beni Khaibr. The Rechabites attacked the caravan, and destroyed them. Rabbi Gad, in his anguish, used the exclamation common among the Jews, viz. "Hear Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord!" The chief of the Rechabites hearing it, gave orders to stop the massacre. Rabbi Gad was brought to their tents and questioned; they asked him, How matters stood at Jerusalem ?-Whe

* Mr W. might have added, that Mohammed, whose health had been declining for four years, died, believing that he had been poisoned, at Khaibr, by a Jewish female. If so, and these were indeed the Rechabites, what a parallel would it form to Jael, the wife of Heber !

+Jewish Repository for June, 1825, p. 222.

ther Israel still sinned? and whether the temple was not yet built?—They dismissed Gad with presents, and brought him in safety to Sanaa.”*

The counsels of Jonadab to his children must not, however, yet be dismissed, since they will be found, not only to give uncommon interest to the preceding narrative, but tend to illustrate, in such a striking manner, the subject on account of which the whole has been introduced-The moral power of the Family Constitution.

Although the principal design of God, in desiring Jeremiah to bring forward these Rechabites, and set wine before them, was to commend filial obedience, he would by no means have so commended this, and so commended Jonadab, had there been either weakness or folly, unnecessary precaution or undue severity in his commands. On the contrary, when the signs of the times in which he lived are simply glanced at, it is presumed the reader cannot fail to admire the sagacity and the tender parental feeling of this Father: a sagacity and deep concern, by which, in connexion with the knowledge and worship of the true God, he infused a degree of moral power into the constitution of his family, such as in the history of man has probably never been surpassed, if equalled. Change of circumstances unquestionably call for change of counsel; but still, in his case, with a family at command, let us not fail to remark what parental counsel can do.

This eminent man lived at a period when various important prophecies had been left by Elijah, like so many thunder-clouds, to burst upon Israel after he

* Jewish Repository for September, 1825, p. 344.

was gone; and, from the vicinity of Jonadab's residence, as well as his general character, it may be fairly presumed, that if he was not present when the grand question was decided between Baal and the true God, about twenty years before this, and if he had not often conversed with Elijah, he surely had with Elisha, who was then living. Another contemporary of Jonadab's was Jehu, a character of a very different description, but still, of all the monarchs who reigned in Israel, he was the only one who was ever anointed by the commandment of God. A divine sanction was thus given to this monarch; for, when a man was so anointed, it always implied that he was raised up for a special purpose. For one hundred years, and particularly since the days of Jeroboam, idolatry had been awfully on the advance: Jehu was therefore anointed to destroy it, which perfectly accounts for Jonadab saying, that his heart was with Jehu's in such a design. The first meeting of these two men is drawn with that point and beauty by which the Scriptures are distinguished above all human composition.* No sooner was Jehu anointed king than he became the instrument of accomplishing the predictions of Elijah, now gone, and particularly two judgments of the Almighty, the death of Ahab's posterity, and the destruction of Baal, with all his prophets. The steps of Jehu had been marked with blood wherever he went: all whom he met, or who had met with him, fell before his sword, or were ordered to go behind him-but when Jonadab comes out to meet him, his whole deportment is changed.

* 2 Kings x. 1-28.