Exodus 31:12

Summary

This verse is the introductory formula that opens a divine speech. It states that Yehovah spoke to Moses, setting up the instructions that follow in the subsequent verses.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal verb in the narrative (vav-consecutive) form, marking a new event in the storyline: "and then he said."
• YHWH ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name, functioning as the subject of the verb.
• el ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the direction of the speech, toward Moses.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, the recipient of the address.
• le-mor ("saying", H0559) — infinitive construct of the same root as va-yomer, introducing the content of the speech that follows.

What the text says

The verse follows a standard Hebrew narrative pattern for introducing direct speech: subject-verb inversion is avoided here since the verb va-yomer ("and he said") opens the clause, followed by the subject YHWH, then the prepositional phrase el-Mosheh ("to Moses"). This is the typical vav-consecutive imperfect construction used throughout Biblical Hebrew narrative to advance the sequence of reported events — the vav prefix (va, H9001) links this statement to the preceding material as the next occurrence in the account.

The final word, le-mor ("saying", H0559), is built from the same root as va-yomer but appears as an infinitive construct with the prefixed preposition le ("to", H9005). This combination — a finite verb of speech followed by the infinitive of the same root — is a common Hebrew device to formally introduce a quotation. It does not add new semantic content beyond "said" but serves as a grammatical hinge opening the direct discourse that follows in the text. The construction va-yomer YHWH el-Mosheh le-mor is thus a fixed formulaic frame, without variation in tense, mood, or aspect beyond what is required to introduce reported speech.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew va-yomer ("he said", H0559) with ἐλάλησεν ("he spoke"), using a verb of speaking rather than one of saying, while the Vulgate's locutus est ("he had spoken/he spoke") follows the same choice as the LXX. The Hebrew verb root here is consistently "to say," but the Greek and Latin versions both opt for a verb meaning "to speak" instead, a lexical divergence visible in the translation of the opening verb, though the overall sense of introducing a divine address to Moses is preserved in all versions.