[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 9, 2 S 1, ψ 136f.; in participles, Is 5, 9, 19, ψ 84, and especially often when בְּ with a suffix follows the participle, e.g. ψ 2 כָּל־חוֹסֵי בוֹ; cf. Na 1, Jer 8 (ψ 24); ψ 64 (unless רֹאֶה should be read); 98:7.[2]—Before לְ, Ho 9 (but read probably מַתֲמַדֵּי כַסְפָּם); ψ 58 (before לָמוֹ); Pr 24, Jb 18, La 2 (before לָךְ); 1 Ch 6, 23; in participles, Ez 38, Jb 24; before לְ with an infinitive, Is 56, and again before לְ with a suffix, Gn 24, Is 30, 64;[3]—before אֶל־, Is 14, Ez 21; —before אֶת־ (with), Is 8; —before מִן, Gn 3, Is 28 (a participle); Jer 23, Ez 13, Ho 7; —before עַל־, Ju 5; —before בִּלְתִּי, Is 14; —before the nota accus. את, Jer 33; —before a locative (which in such cases also serves as a genitive), Ex 27, Jer 1.
[b] (2) Before wāw; copulative, e.g. Ez 26; but חָכְמַת Is 33, 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 39, 40, the place where (prop. of that in which) Joseph was bound; cf. § 138 g; or בִּמְקוֹם אֲשֶׁר Lv 4, 33, 2 S 15, 1 K 21, Jer 22, Ez 21, Ho 2. We should expect הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר, בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר, as in Gn 35, &c., at the place which..., cf. § 138; but אֲשֶׁר is treated as a nomen rectum instead of as an attribute.
- ↑ Cf. König, ‘Die Ueberwucherung des St.-constr.-Gebrauchs im Semit.,’ ZDMG. 53, 521 ff.
- ↑ In Ju 8 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.
- ↑ 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 26 (for which in Ez 1 merely בֵּית לְ) meaning simply within; מִימִין לְ (2 K 23, Ez 10) on the right hand (i.e. south) of; מִצְּפוֹן לְ (Jos 8, 13, &c., Ju 2) on the north of; cf. also Jos 15 and לִפְנֵי מִן Neh 13.
