Lesson 10 Hebrew Construct Chain

To comprehend Biblical Hebrew, we must be able to identify words in a construct state.

You might be surprised to learn that you are already familiar with at least one Hebrew Construct chain.

בֵּית לֶחֶם, the word you probably know as “Bethlehem”, literally means “house of bread” and is a Hebrew construct chain. The first thing you might notice is that בַּ֫יִת, the word for “house”, is spelled a little differently. The reason for this is that בֵּית is in what we call a “construct” form or state.

  • בַּ֫יִת means “house”, and is said to be in “absolute” form
  • בֵּית means “house of”, and is said to be in “construct” form

In this lesson, we will discuss the parameters of a Hebrew construct chain. Keep in mind that we do not need to spell the construct state for a given noun. Our primary goal is to recognize it and translate it adequately when we read our Bibles.

LESSON ITINERARY

  1. Describe what is meant by the term “construct chain”
  2. Define a Hebrew construct chain
  3. Review and identify what makes a word definite
  4. Determine the definiteness of a chain
  5. Differentiate between absolute state and construct state words

EQUIPMENT CHECK

Before continuing, can you describe the following concepts?

  • The pronominal suffixes (you have them memorized)
  • Define Type 1 and Type 2 pronominal suffixes