of God Himself.

It was now possible for Jehu to take possession of his capital without danger of opposition, and there to carry out his

final measures against the old order of things. But before doing so he took care, so to speak, to secure his rear by killing

all that had been connected with the house of Ahab in Jezreel, "all his great men," his friends,288 and his chief

officials.289

On his way to Samaria another tragedy was to be enacted. It was at a solitary place, in a locality which has not been

ascertained, but which bore the name of "house of binding of the shepherds" - or, as the Chaldee Paraphrast calls it:

"The house of assembly of the shepherds." Here, where evidently the roads from Jezreel and Jerusalem joined, Jehu and

his followers met the forty-two princes, "the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah,"290 who were going on a friendly visit

to " the children of the king [Joram] and the children of the mistress," [lady-ruler, Gebhirah - evidently Jezebel].  291

So rapid had been the movements of Jehu, and so great was the fear of him, that tidings of what had passed in Israel

had not traveled so far as to arrest the journey of the princes of Judah. Jehu's order was to "take them alive." Whether

they offered resistance, or this was part of the original order of Jehu, certain it is that they were all killed "at the cistern

of Beth-Eqed,"  292 into which their bodies were probably thrown.

As Jehu passed from the scene of slaughter he met a figure that seems strange and mysterious. "Jehonadab, the son of

Rechab," who had come from Samaria to meet the new king, belonged to the Kenites (1 Chronicles 2:55). This tribe,

which was probably of Arab nationality, appears so early as the days of Abraham (Genesis 15:19). Jethro, the father-in-

law of Moses, belonged to it (Judges 1:16). Part at least of the tribe accompanied Israel into the Land of Promise

(Numbers 10:29-32), and settled in the south of Judah (Judges 1:16), where we find them by-and-by mixed up with the

Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:6). Another part of the tribe, however, seems to have wandered far north, where Jael, the wife

of Heber the Kenite, slew Sisera on his flight from Barak (Judges 4:17, etc.; 5:24, etc.). Thus they appear to have

occupied the extreme south and north of the country, and would even on that ground possess political importance. But

what interests us more is their religious relationship to Israel. From the deed of Jael we infer that they were intensely

attached to the national cause. Again, from the circumstance that Jehonadab, the son of Rechab - evidently the chief of

the tribe - came from Samaria to meet Jehu, and from the anxiety which t he latter displayed as to Jehonadab's views

and intentions, as well as from the manner in which he treated him, we gather that the chieftain was a person of

considerable political importance, while the invitation of Jehu: "Come with me, and see my zeal for Jehovah," shows

that he and his tribe were identified with the service of Jehovah in the land. All this throws fresh light on the special

injunction which from that time onward Jehonadab laid upon his tribe (Jeremiah 35:1-16). They were neither to build

houses, nor to sow seed, nor to plant or have vineyards; but to dwell in tents, and so both to be and to declare

themselves strangers in the land.

This rule, which the descendants of Rechab observed for centuries, must, from its peculiarity, have had a re ligious, not

a political,  293 bearing. It has with great probability been connected with Elijah,294 but the important question has not yet

been mooted whether it originated before or after the occupation of Samaria by Jehu.

We believe the latter to have been the case, and it seems evidenced even by the circumstance that Jehonadab came from

Samaria to meet Jehu. We suppose that the ministry of Elijah had made the deepest impression on Jehonadab and his

tribe. The very appearance and bearing of the prophet would appeal to them, and his words seem as those of a second

Moses. Earnestly they waited for the results of his mission and of that of Elisha. And when the word of Jehovah to and

by Elijah was being fulfilled - Hazael made king of Syria, Jehu king of Israel, and the house of Ahab destroyed, root

and branches - they would naturally turn to Jehu, in the hope that a national return to Jehovah would follow. It was a

kind of Old Testament John the Baptist's hope of a kingdom of God. Feelings such as these prompted Jehonadab to go

and meet Jehu, while the latter, knowing the deep impression which the Rechabite movement in favor of the

reformation of Elijah had produced in the land, would be anxious to secure his public support, perhaps even - so strange

and mixed are our motives - to gain his approbation. But what Jehonadab saw of Jehu must soon have convinced him

that he was not one to carry out an Elijah-movement in its positive and spiritual aspect, however fitted an instrument he

might be to execute Divine punishment. And so Jehonadab left Jehu to perpetuate in his own tribe the testimony of

Elijah, by making them Nazarites for ever, thus symbolizing their dedication to God, and by ordering them to be

conspicuously strangers in the land, thus setting forth their ex ectation of the judgments which Elijah had predicted

p

upon apostate Israel.