What Is a Hebrew Construct State?

What the Form Is Doing

Hebrew construct state ties a word closely to what follows or to an attached suffix. The construct word is not standing alone. It is bound into a phrase.

In Genesis 15:5, the construct form with suffix helps produce the sense of "your offspring." The grammar shows relation, and the suffix identifies the person connected to the noun.

Why It Matters for Interpretation

Construct state matters because it prevents the reader from treating the noun as detached from its phrase. The word's role is completed by what follows or by the suffix attached to it.

That can affect interpretation directly. In promise, worship, prayer, and repentance contexts, the relation carried by the construct phrase can identify whose word, way, offspring, praise, or house is in view.

Translation Effect

English often represents construct relationships with possessive wording, such as "your offspring" or "Your ways." That wording can be right, but the grammar should still be explained as relation before it is reduced to ownership.

What It Does Not Prove

• It does not prove ownership in every construct phrase.
• It does not carry the whole theology of the passage by itself.
• It does not remove the need to identify the phrase attachment.

Examples From Form Guides

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