Synopsis of the Chapter
By the example of the obedience of the Rechabites, He condemns the disobedience of the Jews, and threatens the latter with punishment, namely captivity, while promising the former a reward, namely perpetual posterity and His own patronage.
Verse 2 ¶
2. Go to the house — to the lodging to which they had retired in the city, as is clear from verse 11; for the Rechabites did not have houses but tents, as is clear from verse 7.
Verse 4 ¶
4. A man of God — that is, a Prophet of the Lord. So the Chaldean, Vatablus, Lyranus. Whence Moses is called a man of God, Joshua 14:6, and Samuel, 1 Samuel 9:7, and David and others. See what was said at 1 Timothy 6:11. Near the treasury chamber of the princes — in which the princes stored their gifts and offerings which they were about to offer to the Lord. So Hugo and Lyranus. Or rather, in which gifts offered by the princes were kept; for these, being precious, were kept separately and more securely.
Above the treasury — above the treasury chamber: for in Hebrew it is the same word which the translator renders now as "chamber," now as "treasury," and now as "treasury." The chamber. — These were rooms, or cells built in the annexes of the temple, where the priests and Levites could sit and rest. Whence they were called in Greek exedrae, from sitting, and there the furnishings and riches of the temple were stored. Whence in verse 4, the chamber is called a treasury. The chambers therefore were like the stalls of Canons in a choir.
Verse 6 ¶
6. Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying: You shall not drink wine. — Note, says Theodoret, here the remarkable precept of the father and the steadfast obedience of the children in so difficult a matter, and the illustrious perfection under the old law which was so imperfect. For the Rechabites embraced a life free from cares, lacking estates, and abstaining from wine; indeed, although they had children and families, they spurned fields and possessions, and even houses, dwelling in tents as if exiles and strangers here, wholly fixed in hope upon God; and thus they lived for 300 years; for so many years passed from Jehu (with whom Jonadab the father of the Rechabites lived, who gave them these statutes) to the last year of Zedekiah, or to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Whence aptly they have as their father Rechab, meaning horseman or one who ascends, and Jonadab, meaning voluntary of the Lord, as St. Augustine notes in the Preface to Psalm 70. Morally, what the life of the Rechabites, that is, of Religious, ought to be like, Eusebius of Emesa (or rather Eucherius) graphically describes in Homily 9 to Monks: "Compete in praiseworthy rivalry; let each of you be more prompt in the work of God, more fervent in prayer, more diligent in reading, purer in chastity, more sparing in sobriety, more profuse in abundance of tears, more honorable in body, more sincere in heart, milder in anger, more moderate in gentleness, rarer in laughter, more fervent in compunction, more grounded in gravity, more joyful in charity."
And St. Bernard, Sermon 9 on the Wedding at Cana: "When, he says, you see a monk humble under insult, patient under reproach, devoted to his superiors, gentle in his conduct, silent as to speaking, constant in silence, reading attentively in the cloister, praising Christ with all devotion in church with his own voice, weeping if not continually then at least daily, sparing in meals, prompt to obedience, everywhere inclined, everywhere bowed, everywhere modest, his mouth calling upon the dove, his heart always crying out to the Lord, a worshipper of his neighbor and a despiser of himself, loving all, hating himself, then you will be able to say: This monk keeps the commandment of his Creator. O how happy, O how blessed is such a monk!"
Hear also Gregory of Nazianzus, Iambic 15, embracing in one verse the entire duty of a monk: What is a monk? He is one who lives for the law and for God. A monastery is a community of monks, as is clear. Therefore Lewenklavius wrongly translates monasterion as "solitude."
For this is what the other Nazianzen, namely St. Basil, says in his sermon On the Institution of the Monk: "The institution of monastic life has no other purpose before it than the salvation of the soul, and that it may observe with fear, as God's commandment, whatever can be useful for that end." For this reason Gregory Nazianzen calls monks Rechabites.
monks. Second, they did not have houses, but dwelt in tents, as pilgrims on earth, not citizens. Third, they abstained from wine and luxuries; whence the posterity or successors of the Rechabites were the Essaeans or Essenes, about whom Philo, Eusebius, and others write. For these were equally temperate and continent. So from St. Nilus and the Suda, Serarius teaches, Book III of Trihaeresium, Chapter 9. Fourth, they did not engage in trade, did not sow, did not reap, did not seek riches, even though they had wives and children, but lived from their cattle and by the pastoral art, content with simple food and clothing. Fifth, they were Scribes, that is, wise men, students of the law, and they devoted themselves to the contemplation of God, to praises, and to hymns: whence Psalm 70 is said to have been written by them, as its title indicates. So the Hebrews and St. Jerome above.
Calvin objects that here not the father's counsel and precept, but only the obedience of the children, is praised. I respond that in 2 Kings 10:15 and 23, the father and the father's deeds and life are sufficiently praised. Second, if this obedience of the children for 300 years in so difficult and otherwise voluntary a matter was so holy, then certainly the father's precept too was holy, and he did not command anything frivolous or unlawful; for otherwise he would hardly have been obeyed. So St. Jerome and Augustine above.
He objects secondly: This precept, like the Church's precept of fasting, is political and does not bind the conscience. I respond: This is false. For if you say this about the Church, by the same right I will say that the precept of honoring parents, of obeying magistrates and rulers, is political and does not bind the conscience, which no one but an impious person would say. See St. Augustine above. I respond secondly that a parent cannot impose such difficult things on a child, just as he cannot impose the entering of a religious order. This precept of Jonadab was therefore a counsel, not political but religious: or certainly he knew his children to be so good and obedient that they would voluntarily allow it to be imposed upon them.
Verse 7 ¶
7. That you may live many days — that you may live a long, happy, peaceful, and quiet life: for since they were poor and lacked possessions, they also lacked the lawsuits that arise around them. And it was fitting that their life should be prolonged who honored with due respect the giver of life, namely their father. Whence Exodus 20:12 says: "Honor your father, etc., that you may live long upon the earth." You are sojourners — both because the Rechabites, as descendants of Jethro, were sojourners in Israel (for they were Midianites, not Israelites); and because they regarded the earth as a lodging and an exile, but heaven as their fatherland. See what was said at Hebrews 11:9.
Morally, let every Religious say this to himself, indeed every faithful person whose hope and conversation, with St. Paul, is in heaven: Remember that you are a pilgrim on earth: for you have been enrolled by God from all ages as a citizen of the saints, an heir of heaven, and a member of God's household. In every study therefore, labor, meal, sleep, place, and rank, say: "I am a pilgrim"; through all these things I must pass like a pilgrim, and linger nowhere: thus you will taste beforehand the riches and delights of the heavenly fatherland, which God has prepared for you, and in reality after death you will be led into them as an heir: but you will lose them if you fix and cloud your mind with these earthly things. Wherefore St. Bernard rightly exclaims, in his Epistle to the Monks of St. Bertin: "O how great a sweetness of inner consolation and grace of divine visitation is hindered by the vapor of trifles, lasting but a moment!" And again: "Especially we monks, whose life, whether we will or not, is one of labor, are clearly more miserable than all men, if for such small things we suffer such great losses. For what folly, indeed what madness it is, that we who have left behind greater things should cling to lesser things at such great peril."
Verse 11 ¶
11. Come, let us enter Jerusalem to escape the army of the Chaldeans. — The Rechabites, says St. Jerome to Paulinus, "always dwelling in tents, forced to enter Jerusalem because of the incursion of the Chaldean army, are said to have endured this first captivity, because after the freedom of solitude they were shut up in the city as in a prison." Whence Psalm 70 is inscribed with this title: A Psalm of David, of the sons of Jonadab, the first captives. Although the Rechabites did not sin by entering the city on account of the enemy's threat, they would have done better if, following their custom, they had withdrawn further from Jerusalem into the mountains and forests: for they would have escaped captivity, as their ancestors had done during the devastation of Amalek, 1 Samuel 15:6.
Verse 14 ¶
14. The words prevailed. — In Hebrew hukumu, that is, they were established, that is, observed and fulfilled are the words of Jonadab, as if to say: The Rechabites obeyed their father in a difficult matter: you, O Jews, will you not obey your God in an easy matter and law! 16. They have observed firmly — they observed firmly and constantly. For a subject observing the law of a father or prelate, by his obedience confirms and as it were seals it.
Verse 19 ¶
19. There shall not fail a man from the line of Jonadab the son of Rechab, standing in My presence. — The Syriac and Arabic: standing before Me. The Hebrews think that the children of the Rechabites married Levites, that is, women from the tribe of Levi, and that children born from them ministered to God in the temple. Whence the Chaldean translates: There shall not fail a man from the line of Jonadab the son of Rechab ministering before Me.
And Hegesippus, Book II of History, 22, speaking of James the brother of the Lord, says thus: "When they were stoning him, one of the priests from the sons of Rechab, who are commended by the testimony of Jeremiah, said: What are you doing? The just man prays to God for you." But this does not seem to be true; for no one unless born of a father who was a Levite could be a Levite or priest. Second, Theodoret and Hugo explain it thus, as if to say: The children of Rechab will not be lacking, not by generation but by imitation: namely Christian posterity who imitate the abstinence, obedience, and religious life of the Rechabites. Third, Dionysius thinks that liberation from the army of the Chaldeans is here promised to the Rechabites, amid the common calamity of the Jews. Fourth, some think that judges were chosen from among the Rechabites. Others more simply say that here a continuous posterity is promised to the Rechabites, which God will always love, protect, and keep before His eyes. But since to stand before the Lord in Scripture signifies to minister to the Lord, as the Levites and priests did in the temple; and since "the greatest and most beautiful gift of man is to minister to God," as Aristides says, Volume II, Oration 3 (Platonic); hence sixth, others more aptly judge that the Rechabites, on account of such great obedience and detachment from worldly cares, were here chosen by God for some ministry of God and the temple, of which they were capable, or which could be entrusted to them, just as to the Gibeonites was entrusted the care of water and wood for the temple, Joshua 9:23. Sanchez judges this ministry was singing, and that the Rechabites were made singers in the temple. For this is what Scripture seems to say, 1 Chronicles 2:55, whence also Psalm 70 is inscribed to them as to singers. Thus Anna the prophetess and virgins dedicated to God (among whom the Blessed Virgin was raised) ministered in the temple, mending, washing, and preparing the sacred vestments, etc.
Seventh, and most certainly, the very pious life and observance of the Rechabites, their quasi-Naziriteship, is called here a standing or ministry of the Lord; for they equally
as the Nazirites, they abstained from wine. Just therefore as the Nazirites of old, and now the Religious, are said to stand before God and to minister to Him: so the same could be said of the Rechabites. Two things therefore God here promises them: first, that their line will not fail; second, that their descendants will persist in that pious observance of their fathers, and therefore will be dear to God's heart and care, indeed as familiar friends they will continually be in His presence with Him. Thus St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, and other illustrious Saints and founders of Orders heard from God that their Order would not fail, and that God would always raise up distinguished men in it who would guard, support, restore, and perfect the discipline and holiness of the Order.
Famous of old was the oracle of St. Benedict, whose fame has spread throughout the whole world, namely that the Order instituted by him would endure until the end of the world, and at the end of the world would stand most faithfully for the Roman Church and would strengthen very many in the faith, and that no one in it would die except in a state of salvation, as Arnold Wion narrates in the Chronicles of the Order of St. Benedict, which he calls Lignum Vitae (Tree of Life), Book I, Chapter 1, near the end.
A similar oracle exists concerning the Order of St. Francis, in his Life by St. Bonaventure and in the Chronicles of the Order. For when St. Francis, hearing that some were apostatizing or opposing his Order, was greatly distressed, he heard from God: "Why are you troubled, Francis? Who planted this Order, if not I? I will preserve it; when those fall, I will substitute others, and if they have not yet been born, I will cause them to be born; even if only three should remain in it, I will never abandon them, but this will always be My family."
Hear also the memorable vision of St. Pachomius, who received his monastic rule from an Angel, which Dionysius Exiguus reports in his Life: "Angels of light, he says, stood over him (Pachomius), and a youth in their midst resplendent with unspeakable beauty and radiance, who like the sun emitted rays of splendor from himself, having on his head a crown of thorns. And the angels, lifting Pachomius from the ground, say to him: Since you have asked mercy from the Lord, behold your mercy will come to you: God of glory, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, who was sent into this world and was crucified for the salvation of the human race, bearing a crown of thorns on His head. And Pachomius
said: I pray You, Lord, was it I who crucified You? And the Lord, more gently, said to him: You indeed did not crucify Me, but your ancestors did." Then He adds the promise: "Nevertheless be of good courage, and let your heart be strengthened, because your posterity will remain forever, and will not fail until the end of the world; and those who will come after you will be freed from that deep darkness, as many as live continently and take care of their own salvation. For at present those who contain themselves in your presence, following the examples of your virtues, shine with the greatest light of grace; but after you, those who shall have lingered in the darkness of this world, because they will prudently understand what things are to be sought and what avoided, and of their own free will, using no human example, shall have leaped out from such great darkness and, keeping all justice, shall have loved eternal life with their whole heart — amen I say to you, those who are now with you, distinguished in the highest continence and holiness, will be with these, and will obtain the same salvation and rest. Saying this, the Lord ascended into heaven. And the air was so illuminated that the splendor of that light could not be described in human words."
Tropologically, Rechab is Christ; his sons are religious men who imitate His obedience even to death: these stand before the Lord, ready for His every nod; their progeny is perpetual. They are the sons of Rechab, that is, the horsemen of Christ triumphant and ascending to heaven in triumph: for by Christ's example they overcome and trample all earthly things, and as horsemen ride over them and ascend into heaven. Wherefore rightly Blessed Peter Damian, Cardinal, Epistle 18 to Desiderius Cardinal and Abbot, says: "A monastery is a breeding-ground of souls, a stable of heavenly cattle, an aviary of birds." The captabulum, or with the letter p dropped for euphony, catabulum (to which St. Marcellus the Pope was condemned to tend the beasts, and there, worn out by labor and stench, died a martyr) is an enclosure or place, so called because it catches animals. For just as from venor (to hunt) comes venabulum (hunting spear), so from capto (to catch) comes captabulum, and thence catabulum, as it seems; although the Graeco-Barbarous Etymologicon holds it to be a Greek word from kataballo, that is, I cast down, deepen, reject, neglect, so that a catabulum is a low, deep, abject, vile place, such as a stable for cattle. See Cardinal Baronius in the Martyrology for January 19 concerning the catabulum.
Death — a band that strives for salvation alone. A monastery is a community of monks, as is clear. Therefore Lewenklavius wrongly translates monasterion as "solitude."