Leviticus 18:1

Summary

Leviticus 18:1 is a short introductory formula stating that Yehovah spoke to Moses. It is a standard narrative opening that introduces a subsequent divine speech, without yet giving its content.

Key words

• va ("and", H9001) — narrative vav prefixed to the verb, linking this verse to the preceding narrative sequence and marking the start of a new speech-unit.
• y.da.Ber ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel (intensive stem) verb, third person, in narrative form; the piel stem here conveys the act of speaking authoritatively/formally rather than a simple utterance.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the proper name of the deity, functioning as the grammatical subject of the verb y.da.Ber.
• mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, object of the preposition 'el- ("to", H0413), marking Moses as the recipient of the speech.
• Mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, preceded by the preposition le. ("to/in", H9005); this infinitive construction introduces direct speech that is expected to follow.

What the text says

The verse follows a fixed syntactic pattern common in narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible: a narrative vav plus a finite verb (va-y.da.Ber), followed by the subject (Yehovah), the recipient introduced by a preposition ('el- mo.Sheh), and finally the infinitive le-mor ("saying"), which functions as a quotation marker rather than a separate action. The piel stem of dabar (the root behind y.da.Ber) is regularly used for formal, directed speech in legal and covenantal contexts, distinguishing it from the simpler qal forms of the same root used elsewhere for casual talk.

The infinitive Mor ("saying") has no independent subject or tense; grammatically it opens a quotation frame, signaling to the reader that direct speech follows immediately after this verse. The verse itself contains no content of the message — it is purely an introductory formula whose grammatical elements (subject, verb, indirect object, infinitive marker) together set up the reported speech that begins in the next verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders y.da.Ber ("he spoke", H1696G, piel) with εἶπεν ("said"), a simple aorist form, rather than an intensive form matching the piel nuance. The Vulgate's Locutus est ("he spoke/has spoken") uses a perfect passive deponent construction, differing formally from both the Hebrew narrative verb form and the Greek aorist, though all three convey the same basic event of speaking.