The construct chain

How Hebrew says "X of Y"

English uses the little word "of": the Spirit of God. Hebrew has no word for it. Instead it puts two words side by side and slightly changes the first. Look at Genesis 1:2.

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Genesis 1:2

"The Spirit of God" is וְרוּחַ (veruach, "and the spirit of") followed by אֱלֹהִים ('elohim, "God"). Nothing stands between them. The first word leans on the second. The leaning word is in its construct form, and the word it leans on is in its absolute form, which is simply the word standing by itself. The app's 원어 panel labels most nouns with one of these two names (names such as Israel get neither), so you can read the structure straight off the screen. Think of the construct as "…of" and the absolute as the word that finishes the thought. Together they form a construct chain.

The same verse has another one: פְּנֵי (penei) תְהוֹם (tehom), "the surface of the deep". The word פְּנֵי is a form of פָּנִים (panim), "face", which the app's lexicon lists under the headword פָּנֶה. It occurs more than 1,380 times, usually as "face", "front" or "surface". Notice that a chain is a unit. Translations unpack it with "of", but in Hebrew it is one phrase said in one breath.

How the first word changes

A construct form is often shorter than the absolute. You only need to recognise the common patterns.

You can see the feminine ending in Psalm 1:2, "the law of the LORD": בְּתוֹרַת (betorat) is the preposition בְּ plus תּוֹרַת, the construct of תּוֹרָה (torah), "law". Some feminine constructs end in -ֶת instead, like לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת (lememshelet, "for the dominion of") in Genesis 1:16. Many words, though, look the same in both forms; רוּחַ is one. So do not rely on shape alone. Trust the panel's label.

Here is the construct of "house" at work in Exodus 20:2.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Exodus 20:2

מִבֵּית (mibeit) is "from the house of": the preposition מִן attached to בֵּית, the construct of בַּיִת (bayit). The word "house" occurs about 900 times. The next word is עֲבָדִים ('avadim), the plural absolute of עֶבֶד ('eved), "servant" or "slave", which appears about 800 times. Together: "from a house of slaves". The word just before, מֵאֶרֶץ (me'eretz), "from the land of", is also a construct, and the word it leans on is Egypt.

One chain, one definiteness

There is a rule that is easy to remember. Whether a whole chain is definite ("the …") is decided by its last word. If that last word has the article הַ, is a proper name, or carries a suffix such as "your", the whole chain is definite. And the construct word itself never takes הַ.

Go back to Genesis 1:2. פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם (penei hamayim) has the article only on the second word, yet the whole phrase is definite: "the surface of the waters". Compare מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים, where there is no article anywhere, so it is "a house of slaves" and not "the house of the slaves".

Here is the name of a whole people in Exodus 3:15.

בְּנֵי (benei) is the plural construct of בֵּן (ben), "son". It occurs more than 3,000 times, one of the commonest words in the Old Testament. יִשְׂרָאֵל is a proper name and therefore definite, so the whole chain is definite: "the sons of Israel", or "the people of Israel". The same verse repeats אֱלֹהֵי ('elohei), "the God of", four times: "the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob".

A chain can also end with a suffix. In Deuteronomy 6:5, בְּכָל־ (bekhol) לְבָבְךָ (levavekha) is "with all your heart". The word כֹּל (kol), "all", is found more than 5,400 times and is usually construct (כָּל־), placed directly before what it quantifies. We will meet the suffix in the next lesson.

Two more words

Genesis 15:1 has "the word of the LORD": דְבַר (devar) is the construct of דָּבָר (davar), "word" or "thing", about 880 times. And back in Genesis 1:2, the first word of "the Spirit of God" was וְרוּחַ; its noun is רוּחַ (ruach), "spirit", "wind" or "breath".

One last note. The panel also uses the label "construct" on certain verb forms called infinitives. Exodus 3:8 has one, לְהַצִּילוֹ, "to deliver him". An infinitive is not read with "of", so for now just know that the same name appears in two places; we return to it in the lesson on infinitives.

Summary

Hebrew says "X of Y" by placing the construct word and the absolute word side by side. The construct is often shorter (בֵּית, -ֵי, -ַת) but sometimes looks the same, so use the panel's label. The last word decides whether the whole chain is definite, and a construct never takes הַ.

Words in this lesson

• בֵּןbenson: child3,046 times in the OT
• בַּ֫יִתbayithouse: home896 times in the OT
• פָּנֶהpanehface: before1,384 times in the OT
• דָּבָרdavarword877 times in the OT
• רוּחַruachspirit216 times in the OT
• כֹּלkolall5,412 times in the OT
• עֶ֫בֶדevedservant/slave798 times in the OT

Practice