RECAH
RECHAB, RECIIABITES
203
the well outside the city (v."), he prays for a sign by which he may know Isaac's destined bride ; and the damsel wno fullils it proves to be Rebekah. Lalian and Bethuel, satisfied bj' the evidence of their uncle's prosperity (vv.'-^-^-"; cf. v.'" [RVj, V.''), and of Isaacs prospective wealtli (v.*^''), and reco^^nizing in what had happened the hand of Providence (vv.*'- " ""', — 'spoken,' viz. by tlie facts), agree to the servant's proposal ; Rebekah herself consents to return willi liim (v."'-), and so she becomes Isaac's wife, consoling him after his mother's death (v.^).*
Like Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah, Rebekah was at first barren ; and her barrenness ceased only after Isaac's entreaty ('2o-'), — according to the chronology of P (25*'- -"■), — "20 years after her marriage. On the oracle, received by her (2o^), shortly before the birth of her twin sons, see JACOB, vol. ii. p. 526. The ne.\t incident in Rebekah's life that we read of is on the occasion of Isaac's visit to Gerar (26»-"), when, fearing lest her beauty (cf. 24'«) might attract admirers, and his own life be en- dangered in consequence, he passed her off as his sister (cf. tin 20; and ISAAC, vol. ii. p. 484''). •lacob was Rebekah's favourite son (25^) ; and Gn 27 (JE) tells of the deed of treachery by which the ambitious and designing mother, 'sacrificing husband, elder son, principle, her own soul, for an idolized person,' secured for him his father's blessing (see more fully, on tliis narrative, Jacob, vol. ii. p. 527). After this, she prompted Jacob to flee to his uncle Laban, in order to escape Esau's vengeance, w."-" : in the paragraph from P which follows (27'"^-2S''), however, the motive upon wliich she urges his visit to ^aran, is that he may obtain a wile, not, like Esau (cf. 20^- *• P), from among the natives of Canaan, but from among Laban's daughters (see, furtlier, ibid.). An isolated, and very possibly misplaced, notice (35") states that Deborah, Rebekah s nurse, who had accompanied her long before from ^aran (24'-'), died alter Jacob's return to Canaan, and was buried below Retliel. The death of Rebekah herself is not specially mentioned ; but in 49^' (I') she is said to have been buried in the cave of Maclijielah.
S. R. Driver.
RECAH. — 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.