Herbert Migsch, «Wohnten die Rechabiter in Jerusalem in Häusern oder in Zelten? Die Verbformationen in Jer 35,8-11», Vol. 79 (1998) 242-257

The Rechabites who were obliged to follow the nomadic way of life fled to Jerusalem according to Jer 35 in the face of the Babylonian-Aramean army that was moving towards Judah (597 B.C.). Although their ancestor Jonadab had among other things commanded his descendants always to dwell in tents, the Rechabites in Jerusalem lived in houses. This interpretation of the literature is of course disputed. According to many exegetes the Rechabites preserved the nomadic way of life. Nevertheless, a syntactic-semantic analysis of the verbal forms of vv. 8-11 and an analysis of the connections between the sentences in vv. 8-11 show that the Rechabites during their stay in Jerusalem observed the prohibitions of their ancestor – to drink no wine, to build no houses and not to plant or to possess a vineyard –, but not his command to live in tents.

allerdings in Leerlauffunktion ¹⁵ für einen generellen vergangenen Sachverhalt. Dessen Generalität ist aus Folgendem abzuleiten: (1) Der Gehorsam der Rechabiter gegenüber ihrem Ahnherrn basierte darauf, daß dessen Gebote die Norm waren, die ihr ganzes bisheriges Leben bestimmt hatte; vgl. die temporale Angabe kol-ya4me ("unser ganzes Leben lang") in der Infinitivkonstruktion 8aI. (2) Wie die Weigerung der Rechabiter, Wein zu trinken, (V. 6) zeigt, bestimmte diese Norm auch weiterhin das Leben der Rechabiter. Der generelle vergangene Sachverhalt ist nicht unter dem imperfektiven, sondern unter dem perfektiven Aspekt dargestellt ¹⁶.