REAIAH

SEAIAH.— 1. A Calebite famUy (1 Ch V), called In 2a Haroeh (wh. see). 2. A Reubenite family (1 Ch 5»). 3. A Nethinim family name (Ezr 2" =Neh 7»» = 1 Es S" Jairus).

REAPING'. — See Agkicdi-ture, 3.

BEBA. — One of the five kinglets of Midian slain by Moses (Nu 31«, Jos 13").

REBEKAH (in Eo S" Rebecca).— The daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, and his wife Milcah (Gn 2223).. ghe was also the sister of Laban and became the wife of Isaac, The well-known story of the facts leading up to the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah is told in Gn 24, and gives valuable information as to early marriage customs. Isaac is not consulted. Abra-ham's servant Eliezer (Gn 15^) is sent to seek for a wife among his master's kinsfolk. The servant proceeds to the 'city of Nahor' (Haran), and, arriving at the gate of the city, waits by the well till the women come out to draw water (v.")- He prays that God may prosper him and give him a sign by which he may recognize the woman Providence has set apart for Isaac. Rebekah comes out and offers to draw water for the stranger and his camels. The servant loads her with gifts, and her family, led by her brother Laban, being convinced of Abraham's wealth, and recognizing the will of Heaven In the selection, agrees to the marriage. Rebekah re-turns with the servant and becomes Isaac's wife (v.^').

In Gn 25" we are told that Rebekah, like many other favourite wives of the OT ie.g. Sarah, Rachel, Hannah), was at first barren, but in answer to Isaac's prayer Jacob and Esau were born (Gn 25"-26). Before their birth Rebekah received the oracle from Jehovah, that two nations were in her womb and that the elder should serve the younger. No doubt this story is a late Jewish legend, arising from the desire to find the history of the two peoples Israel and Edom foreshadowed in the lives of their progenitors.

Rebekah again comes before us during Isaac's sojourn In Gerar (Gn 26"-"). Fearing lest the beauty of his wife might excite the desire of the king of Gerar and so lead to his own death, Isaac passed her off as his sister — a course of action which led him into difflciJties with Abimelech (Gn 26'»).

The destiny of Jacob, her favourite son, was strongly influenced by his strong-minded mother. She was the author of the treacherous plan by which Jacob deprived Esau of his father's blessing (Gn 27). She advised him to flee from his home to her brother Laban (Gn 27«-i5). In Gn 28"-, however, the motive of the journey is that he might take a wife from the family of his mother, in contrast to Esau, who had grieved his parents by taking a wife from among the Canaanites (Gn 26"- »*). Re-bekah died before Jacob's return from Haran, and her burial at Maehpelah is mentioned in Gn 49". The death and burial of Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, who had followed her from Haran (24='), are reported to have taken place after Jacob had returned to Canaan (Gn 3.5*).

The character of Rebekah has a peculiar charm and fascination. Appearing first as a pure, unselfish, loving girl, she becomes a woman of great strength of mind and depth of character. She Is clever, active, energetic. She can make plans and carry them out, give orders and expect them to be obeyed, but her masterful spirit cannot brook opposition or contradiction. Esau's wives vex her beyond measure. When she loves, she loves with all her soul, and will spare no painS, consider no consequences, or grudge any sacrifice for those she loves. 'Upon me be thy curse, my son' (Gn 27"), is her answer to Jacob when he fears that a curse will fall on his deception. Although that curse fell and her beloved son had to flee and she saw his face no more, yet we forget the scheming, plotting woman in the loving wife and self-sacrificing mother. W. F. Botd.

BECAH, — A place name (1 Ch 4'^) quite unknown.

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RECONCILIATION RECEIPT OF CUSTOM. — See Custom(s), Tribute.

RECHAB, RECHABITES.— 1. Jehonadab, the sonof ' Rechab, appears in 2 K 10'5-2b as a fervent supporter of Jehu's attack on the house of Ahab and his endeavou' to root out the idolatrous worship which that dynasty had allowed. That his influence was a matter of somi importance is clear from the prominent place whIcL the new ruler gave him (2 K lO's- 23). The principles which actuated him are to be gathered from Jer 35, where his descendants refuse to drink wine because he had bidden them abstain from it, build no houses, sow no seed, plant no vineyard, but dwell in tents all their days. He evidently held that civilization and settled life inevitably led to apostasy from Jahweh, the ancestral Deity of his tribe. And the peril was a very real one, because of the inveterate popular belief that the local baals were the dispensers of all blessings pertaining to field and vineyard (Hos 2=- •»-"). Hence it seemed to more than one of the prophets that the early, simple period of the nation's life, ere it became immersed In the Canaanite civilization, was preferable to all later developments (Jg 2", Hos 10>). Again, the self-restraint of the Rechabites reminds us of the Nazirite vow (see Nazirite). But the latter did not include so many taboos. It permitted the cultivation of land and the building of houses. It was not binding on an entire clan. A genuine tradition is probably embodied in the Chronicler's statement (1 Ch 2"), that the clan of the Rechabites was connected with the Kenites, and this would square admirably with the view that the Jahweh-religion was communicated to Israel by Kenite influence. Subsequently to Jeremiah we do not find more than two Biblical allusions to the clan in question, and one of these is doubtful. Neh 3" reports that Malchijah, the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Beth-haccerem, assisted in re-fortlfying Jerusalem. But If he was a Rechabite by descent, he must have abandoned their principles. The men whom Jeremiah approached were but temporary sojourners, driven Into the city through dread of the Invader. This Malchijah was doubly a townsman, living in a country town, and interested in the metropolis. The title of Ps 71 in the LXX Is: ' Belonging to David. Of the sons of Jehonadab and of the earliest captives,' as though the exiles and the Rechabites agreed in appropriating this poem of sorrow and hope. Finally, it may be noted that later Rabbisfound the fulfilmentof Jer 35" In those marriages of Rechabite maidens into priestly families, from which later priests sprang. Hegesippus relates that one of the Rechabite priests interceded in vain for the life of James the Just (Euseb. HE ii. 23).

2. Rechab and his brother Baanah, two guerilla captains, treacherously murdered Ishbosheth, their king, and met with the due reward of their deed at David's hands (2 S 4). J. Taylor.

RECONCILIATION.— The word 'reconciliation,' with

its cognates. Is a Pauline one, and Is not found in the Gospels, or other NT writings. The chief passages In which it and related terms are employed are Ro S'"- " (RV), 2 Co 6»«-™, Eph 2'«, Col 1!»- ". In He 2", where the AV has 'to make reconciliation for the sins of the people,' the RV reads, more correctly, "to make pro-pitiation.' OT usage, where the word occasionally tr. 'reconcile' (Lv 6™ etc.) Is again more correctly ren-dered in RV 'make atonement,' throws little light on the NT term. The effect of propitiation Is to remove the variance between God and man, and so bring about 'reconciliation.' The means by which this result is accomplished in the NT is the reconciling death of Christ (Col 120-22). Qn the special questions involved, see artt. Atonement and Redemption.

Perhaps better than any other, this term brings out In vivid form St. Paul's conception of the gospel. As proclaimed to men, the gospel is a message of ' reconcilla-tlon' (2 Co 518-™). It Is a misunderstanding of the