JEHONADAB JONADAB (יְהﯴנָדָב׃֩, יﯴנָדָ֨ב, LXX ̓Ιωναδὰ̀β, The Lord is noble or is liberal or has impelled). By transposition of the two elements the name Nedabiah (1 Chron 3:18) is created. 1. A nephew of King David through his brother Shimeah. Scripture calls him “crafty,” which current parlance might render “tricky.” He was such a character—a well-known type such as attaches himself by means of family connection to great families—who makes intimate knowledge of and promotion of the scandals of famous people a goal of life. He used his relation to an heir of David’s throne to promote that lustful person’s (Amnon’s) incest with his half-sister (Tamar, daughter of Absalom). The result was rape of Tamar by Amnon and that wanton fool’s murder by Absalom, Tamar’s full brother. Ultimately a civil war and temporary disruption of the kingdom came out of it. The same Jonadab, however, at least for a time, remained intimate with the royal household (2 Sam 13:1-33).

2. A descendant of Rechab (viz. Rechabites) the nomadic tribe from which came Moses’ wife according to 1 Chronicles 2:55.

3. A descendant of Rechab [viz. Rechabites] a leading person of the Kenites [q.v.] (1 Chron 2:55) somehow connected with the family of Moses’ wife (Judg 4:11) and who settled with Israel in Canaan, some in the far N (Judg 4:6, 11), others in the far S (Judg 1:16; Num 24:21). It is chiefly through the information related concerning the Rechabite, Jehonadab (2 Kings 10:15ff.) and the “whole house of the Rechabites” (Jer 35:2, 3, 5) that we learn of the existence of a semi-“monastic” tribe among the Jews, dedicated to the Mosaic religion but placing special ascetic restrictions on their manner of life, thus setting them apart from all others. It was the religious rigorism of Jonadab which gave him the public respect that made his presence and apparent agreement helpful to Jehu’s thorough, if violent, religious reform. The same is true of Jeremiah’s use of the Rechabites as an object lesson to the apostate and disobedient Jews of his time.