Exodus 35:4

Summary

Moses addresses the entire assembly of the people of Israel, introducing a report of what Yehovah has commanded. The verse functions as a narrative frame, opening direct speech that will follow in subsequent verses.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — narrative vav + qal verb, marking sequential action in the story; establishes Moses as the one speaking.
• 'adat ("congregation of", H5712) — feminine singular construct, linking to what follows ("congregation of the sons of Israel"); denotes the assembled body as a unit.
• le'mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, used twice in this verse (positions 10 and 18) to introduce reported speech, once for Moses' address and once for Yehovah's command.
• tzivvah ("he has commanded", H6680) — piel perfect, intensive stem indicating a formal, authoritative act completed prior to the moment of speaking.
• zeh ("this", H2088) — demonstrative particle pointing forward to the content about to be stated, functioning as a deictic marker introducing direct discourse.

What the text says

The verse is built on two layers of speech introduction, each closed by the infinitive le'mor ("saying", H0559). The first layer is Moses speaking to the assembly (va-yomer Mosheh 'el kol 'adat bene Yisra'el le'mor, "and Moses said to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying"). The second layer, embedded within the first, reports what Yehovah commanded ('asher tzivvah Yehovah le'mor, "which Yehovah commanded, saying"). This double framing with le'mor is a common structural device in Biblical Hebrew narrative, marking the transition from narration into direct quotation without needing quotation marks.

The construct chain kol 'adat bene Yisra'el ("all the congregation of the sons of Israel") stacks three nouns in construct relation (H3605, H5712, H1121G) before reaching the proper name Yisra'el (H3478), producing a single compound designation for the addressed group. The demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088) combined with the article on ha-davar ("the word", H1697I) creates the formula "this is the word," identifying what follows as the specific content commanded, marked as completed action by the piel perfect tzivvah ("he has commanded", H6680).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le'mor (the second occurrence, introducing Yehovah's command) with λέγων, matching the Hebrew infinitive structure, while the Vulgate omits an equivalent for this second le'mor, moving directly from præcepit Dominus ("the Lord has commanded") to dicens is absent — instead the Vulgate uses only one framing clause overall (ait ... dicens) rather than the doubled Hebrew structure. Modern versions such as the BSB similarly collapse the double le'mor into a single introductory clause ("Moses also told... This is what the LORD has commanded"), not reproducing the second infinitive explicitly present in the Hebrew.