Exodus 6:28

Summary

This verse marks a temporal transition, stating that on the day when Yehovah spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, a certain event took place (the verse functions as a resumptive clause reintroducing the dialogue that follows). It restates the setting — the land of Egypt — before continuing the narrative.

Key words

• va-yeHi ("and it was", H1961) — qal narrative verb marking the start of a new narrative unit, the standard formula "and it came to pass."
• be-Yom ("on the day", H3117G) — noun in construct-like use with the following verb, introducing a temporal clause.
• diBer ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel perfect of the verb for speaking, denoting completed, emphatic speech; the piel stem often intensifies the basic action of "saying."
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine proper name, subject of diBer.
• be-'Eretz ("in the land of", H0776G) — feminine singular noun in construct state, linking directly to mitzRayim ("Egypt", H4714G) to form "land of Egypt."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yeHi ("and it was"), a standard Hebrew device that signals a shift or resumption in the storyline rather than a wholly new event. This is followed by a temporal clause built on be-Yom ("on the day") plus the verb diBer ("he spoke") in the piel perfect — grammatically this construction ("on the day [that] he spoke") functions like a relative clause without an explicit relative particle, a common feature in Biblical Hebrew where the noun "day" governs a following finite verb.

The subject of diBer is Yehovah, and the addressee is introduced with the preposition 'el ("to") before Moshe ("Moses"). The clause closes with a second prepositional phrase, be-'Eretz mitzRayim ("in the land of Egypt"), using the construct form 'Eretz ("land of") bound to mitzRayim ("Egypt"). This repeats geographical information already established earlier in the chapter, which is typical of Hebrew narrative resumption: after a digression (in this case, the genealogical material of verses 14–27), the text re-anchors the reader in the original scene — Yehovah speaking to Moses in Egypt — before the direct speech resumes in the following verses.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew va-yeHi ("and it was", H1961) has no separate lexical counterpart in the LXX or the Vulgate; both begin directly with the temporal phrase ("Ἧ ἡμέρᾳ" / "in die qua"), omitting a rendering of this narrative opener. The Vulgate's "in die qua locutus est Dominus" mirrors the Hebrew construct clause closely. The LXX renders Moshe ("Moses", H4872) as "Μωνσῇ" in the dative, consistent with Greek syntax marking the indirect object, whereas the Hebrew uses the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) before the name.