Jonadab
The name Jonadab (also written Jehonadab) belongs to two distinct men in the UPDV. One is David's nephew, a "very subtle" courtier whose counsel sets in motion the rape of Tamar and who later reports the killing of Amnon. The other is Jonadab the son of Rechab, Jehu's chariot-companion in the purge of Baal-worship and the lawgiver whose abstinence rule his descendants still keep generations later in Jeremiah's day.
Jonadab Son of Shimeah, the Subtle Counselor
The first Jonadab is introduced as Amnon's friend and David's nephew: "But Amnon had a companion, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother; and Jonadab was a very subtle man" (2Sa 13:3). Drawing the source of Amnon's lovesickness out of him — "I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister" (2Sa 13:4) — Jonadab supplies the stratagem: "Lay down on your bed, and feign yourself sick: and when your father comes to see you, say to him, Let my sister Tamar come, I pray you, and give me bread to eat, and dress the food in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it from her hand" (2Sa 13:5).
After Absalom kills Amnon at the sheepshearing, Jonadab is the figure who interprets the news to David. He tells the king not to suppose all his sons are dead: "for Amnon only is dead; for according to the mouth of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar" (2Sa 13:32). He repeats the assurance — "don't let my lord the king take the thing to his heart, to think that all the king's sons are dead; for Amnon only is dead" (2Sa 13:33) — and when the surviving sons appear on the Horonaim road, he says, "Look, the king's sons have come: as your slave said, so it is" (2Sa 13:35). Jonadab knows what Absalom has been planning and how long he has been planning it; the same subtlety that engineered Amnon's access to Tamar now reads Absalom's revenge from a distance.
Jehonadab Son of Rechab, Jehu's Companion
The second Jonadab — spelled Jehonadab on his first appearance — meets Jehu on the road as Jehu drives toward Samaria to finish off Ahab's house: "And when he had departed from there, he found Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him; and he greeted him, and said to him, Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? And Jehonadab answered, It is. If it is, give me your hand. And he gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot" (2Ki 10:15). Jehu's invitation makes the alliance public: "Come with me, and see my zeal for Yahweh. So they made him ride in his chariot" (2Ki 10:16).
Jehonadab is then taken into the second phase of the purge. After Jehu's ruse gathers all the worshipers of Baal into Baal's house — Jehu doing it "in subtlety, to the intent that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal" (2Ki 10:19) — Jehonadab enters the house with him: "And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal; and he said to the worshipers of Baal, Search and look, in case there are here with you⁺ any of the slaves of Yahweh, but only the worshipers of Baal themselves [should be here]" (2Ki 10:23). Jehonadab's role is to authenticate the assembly: he is the witness who confirms no worshiper of Yahweh is mixed in before the slaughter.
The Rechabite Rule
Generations later, Jeremiah is told to test this same Jonadab's house. He brings the sons of the Rechabites into the temple and sets wine before them: "And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, Drink⁺ wine" (Jer 35:5). They refuse: "But they said, We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, You⁺ will drink no wine, neither you⁺, nor your⁺ sons, forever" (Jer 35:6).
The full rule Jonadab laid down covers more than wine. The Rechabites recite it: "neither will you⁺ build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your⁺ days you⁺ will dwell in tents; that you⁺ may live many days in the land in which you⁺ sojourn" (Jer 35:7). Their report of compliance follows immediately: "And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters; nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us" (Jer 35:8-10).
The Promise to Jonadab's House
Jeremiah turns the Rechabites' obedience into a contrast against Judah: "Since the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to [my Speech]" (Jer 35:16). Judgment falls on Judah for the failure (Jer 35:17). The blessing falls on Jonadab's house for the success: "And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you⁺ have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your⁺ father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he commanded you⁺; therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab will not lack a man to stand before me forever" (Jer 35:18-19).
The man whose hand Jehu gripped on the chariot-step in 2 Kings becomes, in Jeremiah, the founder of a line whose obedience outlasts the kingdom of Judah itself.