Deuteronomy 2:17

Summary

This verse is a short narrative formula introducing a divine speech. It states that Yehovah spoke to Moses (the narrator/speaker "me"), setting up the words that follow in the next verses.

Key words

• va-y'daBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav; the piel stem gives intensive or formal force to the act of speaking, and the vav links this clause to the preceding narrative sequence.
• Yehovah (H3068G) — the divine name, functioning as the subject of the verb "he spoke."
• 'eLay ("to me", H0413 + H9030) — preposition 'el with first-person pronominal suffix, marking the recipient of the speech.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition le-; this is the standard formula introducing direct speech, roughly "in the saying" or "as follows."

What the text says

The verse follows a fixed narrative pattern common in the Torah: [narrative vav] + [verb "to speak" in piel] + [subject: Yehovah] + [prepositional phrase "to me"] + [infinitive "saying"]. This four-part structure functions as a speech-introduction formula, and its purpose is purely to signal that direct speech follows immediately afterward — the content of that speech is not part of this verse itself.

The piel form y'daBer ("he spoke", H1696G) is the standard stem used for this verb in narrative contexts; it does not by itself indicate unusual intensity here, since this is the conventional way the verb "to speak" appears in such formulas throughout the Hebrew text. The suffix on 'eLay ("to me") identifies the speaker of the surrounding narrative as the recipient, which in the context of Deuteronomy is Moses, though the word "Moses" does not appear in this verse — the identification comes only from the first-person pronoun and the broader narrative frame. The final word, leMor ("saying", H0559), is an infinitive construct that grammatically closes the introductory formula and opens the door to the quoted speech that follows in the next verse.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew va-y'daBer... leMor ("and he spoke... saying") preserves both the narrative verb and the infinitive "saying" as separate grammatical elements. The LXX (Swete) mirrors this with ἐλάλησεν... λέγων ("he spoke... saying"), keeping the same two-part structure. The Vulgate similarly gives locutus est... dicens ("he spoke... saying"). Some modern renderings, such as the BSB ("the LORD said to me"), collapse the two Hebrew verbs (speak and saying) into a single English verb "said," omitting the separate infinitive that is grammatically present in the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate.