10.1 What is a Construct Chain?

Figure 10.2: A simple Construct Chain

A construct chain consists of at least two nouns linked together.

The first important thing to know about a Hebrew construct chain is this:

The very last noun in the chain is said to be in the “absolute state”. All words in the chain before the absolute noun are said to be in “construct state.”

• בֵּית לֶחֶם, “house of bread”
  • “bread” would be in the absolute state
  • “house of” is in the construct state
  • The entire phrase would be called a “construct chain”
    
• A construct chain has one and only one absolute noun and one or more construct nouns
• In English, we would typically add the word “of” after each word in the construct state.
  • We could say “the king’s son” or the “son of the king,” and both would mean the same thing
  • Translating a construct word as “of” is a starting point and not a hard-and-fast requirement
• Just like we may add 's, Hebrew has different spelling for nouns in construct
• The absolute noun is the “normal” spelling and meaning