Jonadab

Biblical Record

Jonadab was the son of Rechab. 2 Kings 10 calls him "Jehonadab," while Jeremiah 35 calls him "Jonadab." The two are variant forms of the same name.

According to 2 Kings 10:15–16, Jehu met Jehonadab while on his way to Samaria after striking down the house of Ahab. When Jehu asked whether his heart was right, Jehonadab answered that it was, and Jehu took him up into his chariot, saying, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD." In 2 Kings 10:23, Jehonadab entered the house of Baal with Jehu, and Jehu had the worshipers searched to make sure that no servants of the LORD were among them.

Jeremiah 35 records an event from much later, in the days of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. The Rechabites had come into Jerusalem to escape the army of Nebuchadnezzar, and Jeremiah brought them into a chamber of the temple and set wine before them. They refused, citing the command of their ancestor Jonadab: they were to drink no wine, build no houses, sow no seed, plant no vineyards, and dwell in tents all their days (Jeremiah 35:6–7).

1 Chronicles 2:55 refers to "the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." On the basis of this verse, some regard the Rechabites as a branch of the Kenites.

Significance Within Scripture

In Jeremiah 35, God contrasts the Rechabites' faithfulness to their ancestor's command with the refusal of the people of Judah to listen to the word of God. He then promises, "Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever" (Jeremiah 35:19). The passage is commonly read as focusing on obedience and faithfulness rather than on abstinence from wine as such. The New Testament does not mention Jonadab directly.

Interpretation and Debate

• The reason for the command: Scripture does not explain why Jonadab gave these commands. A widely held scholarly view is that he sought to preserve a nomadic wilderness way of life in opposition to Canaanite agricultural culture and Baal worship, but this remains an inference. Because of the prohibition of wine, the command is also sometimes compared with the Nazirite regulations.
• Relationship with Jehu: Jehonadab accompanied Jehu in his reforms. Yet Hosea 1:4 declares that God would punish the house of Jehu for the blood shed at Jezreel. Interpreters therefore differ on how to assess Jehu's zeal and how to view Jonadab's participation.
• Later traditions: Apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings recounting the later history of the Rechabites (the so-called History of the Rechabites) have survived, but they are not part of the biblical text.

Others of the Same Name

The Jonadab of 2 Samuel 13:3 was the son of Shimeah, the brother of David, and a friend of Amnon; Scripture describes him as "a very subtil man." He suggested the scheme by which Amnon violated his half-sister Tamar. He is a different person from Jonadab the son of Rechab.

In the Korean Church

Jeremiah 35 is sometimes cited in preaching as an example of obedience in keeping ancestral teaching from generation to generation and of passing on the faith. It is also invoked as support for abstinence in discussions of alcohol and tobacco. However, denominations and preachers differ on whether the passage requires abstinence of all believers.