Leviticus 17:1

Summary

The verse records the introductory formula in which Yehovah addresses Moses, opening a new unit of divine speech. It contains no narrative content beyond the announcement that communication is about to occur.

Key words

• va-yedaBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav, marking the next event in the sequence of divine speeches; the piel stem here carries the sense of formal, direct speech rather than casual talk.
• YHWH ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name functioning as the grammatical subject of the verb yedaBer.
• 'el ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the addressee toward whom the speech is directed.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper noun, object of the preposition 'el, identifying the recipient of the address.
• le-'mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition le, introducing the forthcoming direct discourse; it functions like a colon in English, signaling that quoted speech follows.

What the text says

The clause follows the standard formulaic structure found throughout Leviticus: verb–subject–prepositional phrase–infinitive. The verb yedaBer opens the sentence, carrying the narrative vav that ties this speech-event to the preceding material as the next link in a chain of divine communications. The subject YHWH immediately follows the verb, a common Hebrew word order (verb-subject) for narrative clauses introduced by the vav-consecutive form.

The prepositional phrase 'el-Mosheh specifies the recipient, and the infinitive le-'mor closes the formula, functioning syntactically to introduce the direct speech that will follow the colon in translation. This infinitive construct does not carry tense on its own; its temporal reference is anchored entirely by the finite verb yedaBer preceding it. The whole verse is grammatically self-contained, containing no additional information about content, time, or place — its sole function is to frame the speech that follows in the subsequent verses.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew infinitive le-'mor ("saying") is rendered in the LXX as the participle legōn ("saying") and in the Vulgate as the present participle dicens ("saying"), both matching the Hebrew's function of introducing direct speech, though using participial rather than infinitival grammar. The BSB renders the opening formula as "Then the LORD said," collapsing yedaBer... le-'mor into a single English verb without a separate word for the introductory infinitive, while RV1909 and SBLIBRE preserve two verbs ("habló... diciendo" / "habló... le dijo") corresponding more closely to the two-part Hebrew structure.