ms 
JONAH. 
tion, though he foretells that they fhould be fellow-fuf- 
■ferers in the captivity. Of this family was Jonadab, the 
foil of Rechab, a man of eminent zeal for the pure wor- 
fliip of God againft idolatry, and who affifted Jehu in de¬ 
stroying the houl'e of Ahab, and the worfhippers of Baal. 
It was he who gave that rule of life to his family and de- 
fcendants, called after his father Rechabites, which we read 
of in the thirty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah. It enjoined, 
that they fhould drink no wine; that they fhould neither 
poffefs nor occupy any houfes, fields, or vineyards; and 
that they fhould dwell in tents. In thefe regulations he 
feems to have had no religious, but merely a prudential, 
view ; as is intimated in the reafon affigned for them, that 
ye may live many days in the land where ye be Jlrangers. Jer. 
xxxv. 7. Thefe regulations were well adapted to en’fure 
that confequence, as their temperate mode of living would 
very much contribute to preferve their health ; and more 
particularly, as by the obfervsnce of them they would 
avoid giving umbrage to, and exciting the envy of, the 
Jews, who might have been provoked, by their engaging 
and fucceeding in their principal employments, which 
were agriculture and vine-dreffing, to expel them from 
their country; by which means they would have been de¬ 
prived of the religious advantages which they then enjoy¬ 
ed. That they might, therefore, be under no temptation 
to plant and cultivate vineyards, he forbad them the ufe of 
wine. In the laft verfe of the fecond chapter of 1 Chro¬ 
nicles, they are called fcribes, which feems to intimate, 
that they were engaged in fome kind of literary employ¬ 
ments. The Rechabites appear to have adhered fteadily 
to the inftitutions of their founder for above three hun¬ 
dred years. From their perfeveraitce in their temperate 
unambitious manner of living, out of obedience to the 
command of Jonadab, the prophet Jeremiah took occa¬ 
sion, as related in the chapter already quoted, feverely to 
reproach the Jewifli people for their obftinacy in perfe- 
vering in their vices and idolatry, notwithstanding the re¬ 
peated admonitions and exhortations of the prophets of 
God, and the evils whicli they fuffered as the punifh- 
ment of their crimes. When Nebuchadnezzar's army 
advanced againft Jerufalem, in the reign of Zedekiah, they 
took fhelter in that city, and were moft probably carried 
anto captivity with the tribe of Judah. At the return of 
the Jews from the captivity, we learn, from the la 7 ft verfe 
of 1 Chron. ii. that fome of them fettled at Jabeffi, or Je- 
bez; but we are not informed what became of them af¬ 
terwards. See 2 Kings x. 
JO'NAH, [Heb. a dove.] The fifth in number of the 
minor Hebrew prophetSj but the firft in the order of time, 
was the fon of Amittai, and a native of Gath-hepher, a 
town belonging to the tribe of Zebulon, in Lower Gali¬ 
lee. He prophefied in the reign of Jeroboam II. king 
of Ifrael, or between the years 823 and 783 B.C. It is 
uncertain whether the predictions of the glorious l’ucceffes 
which he promifed that prince, by which he fiiould com¬ 
plete the deliverance of Ifrael from the Syrian yoke, were 
committed to writing, and fince loft; or whether they 
were only delivered by word of mouth. Nothing of his 
has been handed down to pofterity, but the book which 
bears his name; and which relates an account of his be¬ 
ing fent to preach repentance at Nineveh, the capital of 
the Affyrian empire. After being directed to undertake 
this miflion, confidering it probably to be a dangerous 
one, he endeavoured to evade obeying the divine com¬ 
mand, by going to- Joppa, and taking his paffage in a fliip 
bound to fome diftant country. The veffel had not been 
long at fea, when a violent tempeft arofe, which threat¬ 
ened its deftruftion; and the failors, after being obliged 
to throw overboard the goods with which it was freighted, 
applied for protedlion to the deities whom they worfhip- 
ped. In the mean time Jonah was in a found fleep in his 
cabin. Upon this the mafter of the veffel awakened him, 
and ordered him to addrefs himfelf to his God, that he 
might prove propitious to them in that extremity. In 
Vat.. XI. No. 74-9. 
the next place the failors, conceiving that the ftorm was 
fent by way of punifhment for the mifdeeds of fome indi¬ 
vidual amonglt them, call lots, in order that they might 
by that method of appeal to Heaven detect the guilty 
perfon. The lot having fallen upon Jonah, in anfwer to 
their enquiries who he was, and what was his bufinefs, lie 
gave fuch an account of himfelf, as led them to be con¬ 
vinced that their perilous fituation was owing to his dif- 
obedience to the divine commands. As the ftorm ftill in- 
creafed, and he was fenlible that he was the occafion of 
it, upon demanding what method they fiiould adopt re- 
fpedting him, in order to appeafe the difpleafure of his 
offended Deity, he told them that if they threw him into the 
fea they would be no longer in any danger. After ftrug- 
gling for fome time longer in vain againft the furious ele¬ 
ments, and praying that they might not be chargeable 
with the guilt of innocent blood, they threw Jonah into 
the fea, and its raging fpeedily ceafed. Jonah was fwal- 
lowed by a large fifii, in which he was miraculoufiy pre- 
ferved alive during three days, or one complete day and 
a part of two other days, and was then call: out upon the 
lea-fiiore. 
Being ordered a fecond time to proceed to Nineveh, 
he obeyed the divine command; and, when he had ar¬ 
rived at that large city, he palled through the ftreets, pub¬ 
licly prophefying deftrudtion to it at the end of forty 
days, as a punifhment of the enormous vices of the inha¬ 
bitants. The Ninevites, who, moft probably, were not 
unacquainted with the fame of the God of Ifrael and his 
prophets, no fooner heard this dreadful denunciation, than, 
they were awakened to a fenfe of their guilt. In purfu- 
ance of the king’s command, a folemn fait was obferved ; 
earneft prayers was addreffed to God to deprecate his dif¬ 
pleafure; and all ranks were exhorted to amendment of 
life. As thefe marks of humiliation were accompanied 
with true contrition, and a change of conduct, God was 
pleafed to revoke the fentence which he had ordered Jo¬ 
nah to pronounce, in conformity with his invariable dif- 
pofition to fhow mercy towards the penitent. When Jo¬ 
nah was informed of God’s gracious determination, in- 
ftead of reverently admiring the divine clemency, hi* 
nvind was chiefly occupied by a concern for his own re¬ 
putation and Safety ; and, confidering his veracity and the 
honour of his office to be at ftake, he impatiently begged 
of God that he might die, rather than live under the im¬ 
putation of being a falfe prophet. This temper was high¬ 
ly criminal, and was feverely reproved by the Almighty. 
Jonah had now gone out of the city, and in fome retired 
place within -view of it had erected for himfelf a booth, 
where he waited in expeftation of the deftruftion of Ni¬ 
neveh. Over this booth a plant, which grew miraculoufiy 
in one night, fpread its fhady foliage, and agreeably pro¬ 
tected the prophet from the burning heat of the.fun. In 
this plant Jonah took great delight. He was therefore 
much grieved when it afterwards periflied in one night, 
in confequence of being gnawed by a worm ; and on the 
following day, being rendered exceflively faint by a fuf- 
focating eaft wind and the fcorching beams of the fun to 
which he was expofed, he again fuffered his impatience to 
get the maltery over him, and, while regretting the lols of 
his plant, repeatedly expreffed his wiffi to die. After be¬ 
ing reproved once more for perfifting in that criminal 
temper, God offered a reafon for the clemency ffiown to¬ 
wards the Ninevites, which upon reflexion feems to have 
rendered Jonah fenfible of his fault, and filenced his com¬ 
plaints: Then /aid the Lord, Thou ha/l had pity on the gourde 
for the which thou haft not laboured, neither madeft it grow: 
which'came up in a night, and perijhed in a night. AndJheuld 
not I /pare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than ftx 
jcore thou/and perfons that cannot difcern between their right 
hand and their left hand, and alfo much cattle? Jonah, iv. 10, 
11. We learn no further authentic particulars concern¬ 
ing this prophet. In Bayle the curious reader may meet 
with fpecimens of rabbinical and other legendary tales 
3 R which 
