Deuteronomy 31:25

Summary

The verse reports that Moses gave a command to the Levites who were responsible for carrying the ark of the covenant of Yehovah. It functions as an introductory formula, setting up the direct speech that follows.

Key words

• va-y.Tzav ("and he commanded", H6680) — piel narrative verb: the intensive stem marks a formal, authoritative act of commanding, and the vav-consecutive form ties this event directly to the preceding narrative sequence.
• mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper noun, subject of the verb; identifies Moses as the one issuing the command.
• ha-l.vi.Yim ("the Levites", H3881) — definite plural gentilic noun, the direct object (marked by 'et-, H0853) receiving the command.
• no.se.'Ei ("carriers of", H5375H) — qal participle, masculine plural construct: describes the Levites' ongoing function/role ("the ones who carry") rather than a one-time act, and grammatically links to the following noun chain.
• 'a.Ron... be.rit... Yehovah ("ark of the covenant of Yehovah") — a chain of construct nouns ('a.Ron, H0727; be.rit, H1285) culminating in the divine name, forming a single compound title for the object being carried.

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative vav attached to y.Tzav ("he commanded", H6680), a piel form that signals both the intensive/formal nature of the act and its place in the unfolding sequence of the story — "and then he commanded." The subject mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) follows immediately, and the object of the command, ha-l.vi.Yim ("the Levites", H3881), is marked by the untranslated object marker 'et- (H0853).

The Levites are further specified by the participle no.se.'Ei ("carriers of", H5375H), in construct form, which introduces a chain of three nouns in construct relationship: 'a.Ron ("ark of", H0727) governs be.rit ("covenant of", H1285), which in turn governs Yehovah (H3068). This construct chain builds a single compound expression, "ark of the covenant of Yehovah," identifying precisely which object the Levites carry. The participle form (rather than a finite verb) presents this carrying as a characteristic or ongoing role of these Levites, not a single completed action.

The verse closes with le-Mor ("saying", H0559), an infinitive construct with the preposition le- (H9005), the standard formula introducing direct speech that follows in subsequent verses.

Differences between versions

The LXX and Vulgate omit an explicit equivalent for mo.Sheh as a repeated subject marker in the immediate clause structure (the Greek verb ἐνετείλατο and Latin præcepit carry the subject from context rather than restating the name adjacent to the verb in the same word order), but the referent remains Moses in all versions. The Vulgate's "portabant" (imperfect, "were carrying") reflects the participial nuance of ongoing action found in the Hebrew no.se.'Ei, similarly to the Greek present participle αἴρουσιν ("carrying").