B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

How do you express the possessive in Hebrew?

For example, how would you make Job (איוב) Job's (as in "Job's book."Job's house"." or "Job's friends")?

The possessive in Hebrew is expressed by placing words (usually two words) next to each other. The first word is said to be in the "construct" state and the second word is said to be in the "absolute" state.

Often the word in construct is modified to indicate its close relationship to the word in the absolute. The modifications usually take the form of modified endings, absence of accents, changing of vowels, or the use of a maqqeph to join the two words. There can be a mixture of these modifications or none of these modifications.

So we have a genitive phrase in I Chron 23:15 בְּנֵי מֹשֶׁה -- "The sons of Moses"
While the genitive phrase in Gen 5:4 בְנֵי־שֵׁם -- "The sons of Shem" uses the maqqeph in the relationship

Perhaps it would help to view this video:
http://animatedhebrew.com/lectures/chap ... er_12.html