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THE CONSTRUCT FORM |
EXAMPLE 117: Ex28-11a a STONE JEWELERS work
EXAMPLE 118: Nu06-05b let him grow the GROWING locks of hair
BACKGROUND
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Hebrew and English words have two forms
-the ORDINARY form -eg And Abraham was OLD (Gn24-01)
-the CONSTRUCT form-eg THE ELDER of his house(Gn24-02)
In other words the word OLD by itself is OLD. But when
it occurs as part of a phrase modifying or modified by
other phrases, as in eg the phrase THE OLD ONE OF HIS HOUSE,
then the word OLD becomes ELDER -- that is the phrase is best
translated as THE ELDER OF HIS HOUSE.
RECOGNITION
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You can usually recognize the fact that a word is
modifying other phrases by the word OF( eg elder OF his house)
The above example was in English. The corresponding example
in Hebrew are the Hebrew words ZaKayN vs ZeKaN (OLD vs ELDER).
REFERENCES
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Almost any good Hebrew grammar book will have a discussion on
this. My favorite terse summary may be found at the back of
the Ibn Shoshan Dictionary in the table FORMS FOR NOUNS.
FORM 2 is in fact the above example from Rashi (OLD vs ELDER)
THE LIST
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We now review Rashis that comment on CONSTRUCT grammatical forms
In particular we explain WHY Rashi chose to comment on the
CONSTRUCT form in these cases. We will present a different
reason every day.
In the LIST presented today the construct form is rare and
is not found in Ibn Shoshan (One form is even absent
in the Mendelkorn Konkordance). Since it is rare Rashi
felt compelled to mention it
Here is the LIST. The 3rd column labelled D refers to the
IBN SHOSHAN Dictionary. If the CONSTRUCT form is listed
there the number of that form is exhibited. Otherwise NA
is placed there (NOT APPLICABLE)
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| VERSE |
TEXT(Construct CAPPED) |
D |
WHY RASHI COMMENTED |
| Ex28-11a |
a STONE JEWELERS work |
NA |
Rare construct *1 |
| Dt32-13h |
from HARD rocky ground |
NA |
Only occurence of construct*2 |
| Nu06-05b |
GROWN locks of hair |
8 |
Rare & Exception to Rule*3 |
| Dt04-41c |
On EASTWARD border |
NA |
Rare occurence in Tnach*4 |
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COMMENTS |
*1 The ordinary form of the word (ChoRoSh) means JEWELER
The construct form of the word (ChoRash) means A JEWELER
OF SUCH AND SUCH There are only 3 examples in the
Bible:
-----------------------------------
-Stone Jewelers Ex28-11a
-Iron Jewelers Isa44-12
-Wood Jewelers Isa44-13
-----------------------------------
This construct form is Rare and is not listed in Ibn Shoshan
Hence Rashi commented on it because of its rarity
*2 Meanings of the Hebrew word CHaLaMish with and
without construct
----------------------------------------------------------
HEBREW CONSTRUCT? TRANSLATION MY TRANSLATION
---------- ------------- ----------- --------------
CHaLaMiSh by itself HARD ROCK CLEFTED ROCK
CHaLaMiSh in construct HARD ROCK CLEFTED ROCK
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Thus the construct form does not add anything. For this
reason Rashi had to comment on it.
Furthermore the word CHaLaMish only occurs 5 times in
Tnach with only one of the them being construct
For a discussion of my translation(CLEFTED) vs other
scholars(HARD) see http://www.RashiYomi.Com/dt32-13h.htm
*3 The verb P-R-A means to >GROW<. Thus the verse is translated
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Let him grow the GROWTH of the hair of his head
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However if a VERB vs a CONSTRUCT form had been used it would
be translated as in Nu05-18 -
-------------------------------
He shall let LOOSE her hair
-------------------------------
since the verb PARAH means to be WILD, which when applied to
hair, means LOOSE. Thus with the verb vs construct, Nu06-05
would be translated
-------------------------------------------------------
Let him GROW and let him make WILD the hair of his head
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In a nutshell,
- PARAH the verb means GROW WILD while
- PERAH the construct means THE GROWTH
Chazal explain that GROWTH refers to 30 day growth (so that it
has an element of wildness in it).
Thus one reason Rashi emphasized the construct form was to
differentiate it from the verb form.
A further reason Rashi emphasized it is because it is a rare
form. Although Segolate nouns are common nevertheless this
segolate noun--P-R-A-- has TWO guttural letters (The 2nd
and 3rd letter). As such it is a rare form and Rashi had
to comment on it.
*4 I was really shocked: This form is so rare that it does not
even occur in the famous Mendelkorn Konkordance (8th edition)
(A communication from several posters on the Email Group
HebLang at Shamash pointed out that this form although it
is rare occurs more than once. It occurs 3 times and may
be found in the 1st set of corrections in Mandelkern on
page 1535a in the 8th edition. The 3 occurences are Dt04-41
Jos12-01 Jud21-19.
The usual construct form for EAST is the Hebrew MiZRaCh.
It is well known that adding a HEY to a word can mean
In the direction of that place
So I would suggest that Mizrecha Shemesh means the
EASTWARD BORDER while Mizrach Shemesh means EASTWARD
This makes sense since the 3 refuge cities were scattered
across Israel's border.(This usage is also consistent
with the occurence of Mizrechah in Jos12-01. However it
is not clear that it is consistent with the usage in Jud21-19
Perhaps the intent there is that Benjaminites from the WHOLE
east coast journied to Shiloh).
This explanation is not full-proof however. Since when a
HEY is appeneded to a words end the accent should fall
back (which does not happen here).
In any event it is a rare form since it occurs only 3 times
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