< Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu
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§130. Wider Use of the Construct State.

 [a]  The construct state, which, according to § 89 a, primarily represents only the immediate government by one substantive of the following word (or combination of words), is frequently employed in rapid narrative as a connecting form, even apart from the genitive relation; so especially—

(1) Before prepositions,[1] particularly in elevated (prophetic or poetic) style, especially when the nomen regens is a participle. Thus before בְּ, שִׂמְחַת בַּקָּצִיר the joy in the harvest, Is 92, 2 S 121, ψ 1368f.; in participles, Is 511, 91, 198, ψ 847, and especially often when בְּ with a suffix follows the participle, e.g. ψ 212 כָּל־חוֹסֵי בוֹ; cf. Na 17, Jer 816 (ψ 241); ψ 649 (unless רֹאֶה should be read); 98:7.[2]—Before לְ, Ho 96 (but read probably מַתֲמַדֵּי כַסְפָּם); ψ 585 (before לָמוֹ); Pr 249, Jb 182, La 218 (before לָךְ); 1 Ch 655, 2328; in participles, Ez 3811, Jb 245; before לְ with an infinitive, Is 5610, and again before לְ with a suffix, Gn 2421, Is 3018, 643;[3]—before אֶל־, Is 1419, Ez 2117; —before אֶת־ (with), Is 86; —before מִן, Gn 322, Is 289 (a participle); Jer 2323, Ez 132, Ho 75; —before עַל־, Ju 510; —before בִּלְתִּי, Is 146; —before the nota accus. את, Jer 3322; —before a locative (which in such cases also serves as a genitive), Ex 2713, Jer 115.

 [b]  (2) Before wāw; copulative, e.g. Ez 2610; but חָכְמַת Is 336, גִּילַת 35:2, and שְׁכֻרַת 51:21 may be cases of an intentional reversion to the old feminine ending ath, in order to avoid the hiatus (וָ)־ָה וְ.

 [c]  (3) When it governs the (originally demonstrative) pronoun אֲשֶׁר; so especially in the combination מְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר, Gn 3920, 403, the place where (prop. of that in which) Joseph was bound; cf. § 138 g; or בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר Lv 424, 33, 2 S 1521, 1 K 2119, Jer 2212, Ez 2135, Ho 21. We should expect הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר, בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר, as in Gn 3513, &c., at the place which..., cf. § 138; but אֲשֶׁר is treated as a nomen rectum instead of as an attribute.

  1. ↑ Cf. König, ‘Die Ueberwucherung des St.-constr.-Gebrauchs im Semit.,’ ZDMG. 53, 521 ff.
  2. ↑ In Ju 811 the article is even used before a construct state followed by בְּ, in order to determine the whole combination שְׁכוּנֵי בָֽאֳהָלִים tent-dwellers, taken as one word; cf., however, the remarks in § 127 f–i on similar grammatical solecisms.
  3. ↑ These are to be distinguished from the cases where לְ follows a construct state, which in conjunction with מִן (and the following לְ) has become a sort of preposition or adverb of place; thus, we have מִבֵּית־לְ Ex 2633 (for which in Ez 127 merely בֵּית לְ) meaning simply within; מִימִין לְ (2 K 2313, Ez 103) on the right hand (i.e. south) of; מִצְּפוֹן לְ (Jos 811, 13, &c., Ju 29) on the north of; cf. also Jos 1521 and לִפְנֵי מִן Neh 134.
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