Exodus 16:11

Summary

The verse records a simple narrative introduction: Yehovah speaks to Moses. It functions as a formulaic transition marking the beginning of a divine speech, without content of its own — the message itself follows in subsequent verses.

Key words

va-y'daBer — "and he spoke" (H1696G) — piel stem of the root for "to speak," prefixed with the narrative vav that links this clause to the preceding story as the next event in sequence.

Yehovah — "Yehovah" (H3068G) — the divine name, functioning here as the grammatical subject of the verb y'daBer.

'el — "to" (H0413) — preposition marking Moses as the recipient/addressee of the speech.

mo-Sheh — "Moses" (H4872) — proper name, direct object of the preposition 'el, identifying the addressee.

le-Mor — "saying" (H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition le, a standard formula introducing direct speech; it does not add independent semantic content but signals that quoted words follow.

What the text says

The clause follows the basic Biblical Hebrew narrative pattern: verb–subject–prepositional phrase–infinitive of speech. The verb y'daBer ("he spoke," H1696G) opens the sentence, preceded by the narrative vav, which is the standard device for advancing sequential action in Hebrew prose — it signals "and next this happened" rather than marking cause, contrast, or simultaneity. The subject, Yehovah (H3068G), follows the verb, which is normal Hebrew word order (verb-subject) rather than an emphatic construction.

The piel stem of daBer ("to speak") is the form regularly used for the act of speaking or declaring, distinct from the qal root 'amar ("to say"), which appears here instead in its infinitive form, le-Mor ("saying," H0559). This combination — y'daBer... le'mor — is a fixed formula throughout the narrative books: a first verb of speaking introduces the act, and the infinitive of 'amar introduces the content that follows. The infinitive itself carries no tense; it functions structurally to open the upcoming quotation, meaning the grammatical weight of the verse falls entirely on marking that a speech-event occurred, not on describing its content.

The preposition 'el ("to," H0413) plus mo-Sheh ("Moses," H4872) identifies the addressee without further modification — there is no indication in this clause of location, time, or accompanying circumstance beyond the bare speaker-addressee relationship.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Locutus est autem Dominus) inserts the conjunction "autem" ("however/then"), giving a mild adversative or transitional nuance not carried by the Hebrew narrative vav, which is purely sequential. The LXX (καὶ ἐλάλησεν... λέγων) and the Hebrew both preserve the simple "spoke... saying" sequence without added nuance.