Leviticus 19:1

Summary

Leviticus 19:1 is a short introductory formula stating that Yehovah spoke to Moses. It is a standard narrative opening used to introduce direct divine speech that follows in the subsequent verses.

Key words

• va-y'daBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel form with narrative vav; the piel stem here carries an intensive or declarative nuance of speaking, and the narrative vav links this clause sequentially to the surrounding text, marking a new unit of discourse.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the proper name of the deity, functioning as the grammatical subject of the verb y'daBer.
• 'el ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the directional target of the speech, i.e., toward Moses.
• moSheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, functioning as the indirect object/recipient of the divine speech.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed le-; this infinitive introduces direct speech, functioning like an opening quotation marker meaning roughly "as follows" or "saying."

What the text says

The verse follows a fixed syntactic pattern common in the Hebrew Bible: verb + subject + prepositional phrase + infinitive introducing speech. The sequence va-y'daBer ("and he spoke") + Yehovah (subject) + 'el-moSheh ("to Moses") + leMor ("saying") is a formulaic construction that signals the start of a divine communication addressed to Moses. The narrative vav on y'daBer ties this verse to the flow of the larger book, indicating continuation rather than an isolated statement.

The infinitive leMor ("saying", H0559) does not carry independent tense; it functions syntactically as a marker that opens direct discourse, similar to a colon introducing a quotation in English. This means that in the Hebrew grammar, the actual content of the speech that follows is presented as the direct words of Yehovah, introduced formally by this infinitive rather than by a separate main verb of address.

No unusual verbal forms, unexpected word order, or lexical ambiguities appear in this verse; it is a stereotyped introductory formula found repeatedly in the legal sections of the book.

Differences between versions

All versions render the formula consistently. The LXX uses ἐλάλησεν ("he spoke") for y'daBer and λέγων ("saying") for leMor, matching the Hebrew infinitive construction with a participle. The Vulgate's Locutus est... dicens mirrors the same structure using a perfect passive deponent verb plus present participle. The BSB introduces the clause with "Then" rather than "And," reflecting a stylistic choice in English narrative sequencing rather than a divergence in underlying meaning.