10.2 A Construct Chain describes the FIRST noun in the chain

A construct chain describes the first NOUN in the chain.

Figure 10.3: A construct chain describes the first NOUN in the chain.

The purpose of the chain is to describe the first noun in the chain, but not necessarily the first word in the chain

  • After the the previous discussion, it might be reasonable to think that the construct chain would be describing the noun in the absolute state, but that is not usually the case
  • In בֵּית לֶחֶם, we are describing the house, not the bread
  • If there were a substantival adjective as the first word, e.g., חַכְמֵי־לֵב, “wise of heart”, the chain is describing “heart,” not “wise”