Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JONADAB

(Heb. yônāḏāḇ) (also JEHONADAB)

1. The son of David’s brother Shimeah (2 Sam. 13:3; yĕhônāḏāḇ in v. 5). David’s son Amnon was infatuated with his half-sister Tamar, and Jonadab, who is described as a “very crafty man,” counseled him to feign sickness and request of his father that Tamar prepare a meal in front of him. Amnon heeded Jonadab’s advice, and when Tamar drew near Amnon seized and raped her. The scheme may have been intended to establish Amnon’s claim to the throne. After Absalom had his brother Amnon slain for raping his sister, David heard a rumor that all of his sons were slain. Jonadab, however, assured him that only Amnon had been killed and that Absalom had been planning this since the rape of Tamar (2 Sam. 13:32, 35).

2. The son of Rechab (2 Kgs. 10:15), the eponymous ancestor of the Rechabite clan. According to 2 Kgs. 10:15-24, where he is referred to as Jehonadab (yĕhônāḏāḇ), he accompanied Jehu in the slaughter of the survivors of the house of Ahab (vv. 15-17) as well as the priests of Baal (vv. 18-24). Jonadab’s zeal for the Lord is also evidenced in Jer. 35, , where the Rechabites are described as abstaining from wine, building houses, sowing seeds, and planting vineyards, as their ancestor Jonadab had enjoined them, that they might live long upon the land (vv. 6-7). Jer. 35 concludes that if Judah had followed the Lord’s commands it would have prospered even as the Rechabites prospered for their faithfulness to Jonadab’s command (vv. 12-19).

John E. Harvey

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JONADAB

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)