Exodus 31:1

Summary

The verse reports that Yehovah spoke to Moses, introducing a divine speech that will follow. It functions as a standard narrative formula marking the beginning of new legal or instructional content in the text.

Key words

• va-y.da.Ber ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav, giving the sequential "and then he spoke," using the piel stem which carries an intensive nuance of speaking (as opposed to a simple casual utterance).
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — proper name functioning as the subject of the verb, identifying who speaks.
• 'el- ("to", H0413) — preposition marking Moses as the recipient/addressee of the speech.
• mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, the human addressee.
• le.Mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition le, functioning to introduce the direct discourse that follows the formula.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a fixed narrative pattern common in the Pentateuch: verb–subject–prepositional phrase–infinitive of speech. The verb y.da.Ber ("he spoke", H1696G) is in the piel stem, which in this verb's usage typically denotes the act of speaking formally or authoritatively rather than casual conversation. The narrative vav prefixed to it signals continuation from a prior narrative unit, connecting this speech act to what precedes it in the text's sequence.

The subject Yehovah (H3068G) precedes the object phrase 'el-mo.Sheh ("to Moses", H0413 + H4872), following the typical Hebrew verb-subject-object word order for narrative clauses. The final word, le.Mor ("saying", H0559), is an infinitive construct with the preposition le ("to/for"), a formulaic construction that functions grammatically to open direct speech — literally something like "to say" or "in saying," but conventionally serving as a colon-like marker introducing quoted words rather than being translated as a separate clause.

The construction contains no verb tense marking beyond the narrative sequence itself; classical Biblical Hebrew narrative verbs of this form indicate sequential past action within the story's timeline, without specifying duration or manner beyond what the piel stem contributes.

Differences between versions

The Greek (LXXSWETE) renders va-y.da.Ber ("and he spoke") with ἐλάλησεν, a straightforward aorist "he spoke," and le.Mor ("saying") with the participle λέγων ("saying"), which functions similarly to the Hebrew infinitive as a speech-introducing device. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) uses Locutusque est ... dicens, paralleling both the finite verb and the participial "saying" construction. Modern translations such as BSB simplify the formula, rendering it as "Then the LORD said to Moses," without a separate word corresponding to le.Mor ("saying", H0559), since English does not require a formal infinitive marker to introduce direct speech.