If it is in
the construct state, we might more naturally have expected the text to read berē’šît berō, with the infinitive construct, rather than berē’šît
bārā. However, there are occasional instances of a construct before a perfect,
for example, Hos. 1.2; Exod. 6.20. This interpretation therefore is not
impossible. It has also been argued in support that the word rē’šît is elsewhere
in the construct, though there is an exception in Isa. 40.10, which speaks of
God ‘declaring the end from the beginning (mērē’šît)’. (John Day, “Genesis
1.1-5: The First Day of Creation,” in From Creation to Abraham: Further
Studies in Genesis 1-11 [Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 726;
London: T&T Clark, 2022], 2; note that Day is a critic of the construct
reading of Gen 1:1)
