Leviticus 14:1

Summary

This verse is a short introductory formula that opens a new divine speech. It states that Yehovah spoke to Moses, setting up the instructions that follow in the rest of the chapter.

Key words

• va-yedaBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav, marking the sequential opening of a new speech unit; the piel stem here carries the basic sense "to speak" (intensive/factitive nuance not semantically active in this common formula).
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine proper name, functioning as the subject of the verb.
• 'el ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the addressee of the speech, directing the action toward Moses.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, the recipient of the divine communication.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed le-, introducing the content of the speech that follows; functions like a colon opening direct discourse.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a fixed narrative pattern common in Leviticus: verb–subject–prepositional phrase–infinitive of speech. The narrative vav on va-yedaBer links this verse to the preceding textual unit, signaling continuation of the larger narrative sequence rather than an isolated statement. The subject Yehovah follows the verb, which is standard Biblical Hebrew word order (verb-subject) in narrative clauses.

The final word, leMor, is grammatically an infinitive construct, not a finite verb, and its function is to introduce the upcoming direct speech — much like a colon or "as follows" in English. This construction is formulaic and appears repeatedly at the start of legal or ritual instructions in Leviticus, marking a formal transition from narrative framework into reported divine speech. No content of the instruction is given in this verse itself; it exists purely as an introductory frame.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew va-yedaBer ("and he spoke") is rendered in the LXX as elalēsen ("he spoke"), without an explicit conjunction equivalent to "and" attached in the same narrative-continuation form, though Greek kai at the start supplies the connective. The Vulgate uses Locutusque est ("and he spoke"), placing the enclitic -que ("and") directly on the verb, which mirrors the Hebrew narrative vav structurally. The English BSB drops the introductory "and" altogether ("Then the LORD said"), while the Spanish SBLIBRE splits the single Hebrew infinitive leMor into two verbs ("le habló... y le dijo," "spoke to him and said to him"), making explicit two actions that the Hebrew expresses with one finite verb plus one infinitive of speech introduction.