Leviticus 20:1

Summary

Leviticus 20:1 is a short introductory formula that opens a new divine speech. It states that Yehovah spoke to Moses, using the standard narrative construction that precedes legal or instructional material in this book.

Key words

• va-y'daBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav, marking a new sequential event in the narrative chain ("and then he spoke"). The piel stem here carries the sense of formal, purposeful speech rather than casual talk.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine proper name, functioning as the subject of the verb.
• 'el ("to", H0413) — preposition marking Moses as the recipient/addressee of the speech.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper noun, masculine, the human addressee.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, introducing direct or indirect discourse that follows; it functions like a colon in English, signaling that reported speech is about to begin.

What the text says

The verse follows a fixed syntactic pattern common in Leviticus and other legal sections of the Torah: verb + subject + prepositional phrase + infinitive of 'amar. The narrative vav prefixed to y'daBer ("and he spoke") links this verse to the preceding material as the next event in sequence, even though it opens a new chapter and topic. This is a formulaic transition marker rather than a description of continuous narrative action.

The infinitive leMor ("saying", H0559) does not carry tense on its own; it serves a purely grammatical function, opening the quotation that will follow in verse 2. This construction — finite verb of speech followed by leMor — is common throughout the legal material in Leviticus and signals that what follows is to be understood as the verbatim content of Yehovah's speech to Moses.

The word order (verb-subject-object) is typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative and legal introductions, placing the verb first. This fronting of the verb is standard for the wayyiqtol (narrative preterite) form and does not itself add emphasis; it reflects the default word order for sequential past narration in this stem and mood.

Differences between versions

The Greek (LXX) uses elalēsen ("he spoke") with kyrios ("lord") for the divine name, following the common practice of rendering the Tetragrammaton with kyrios. The Vulgate similarly reads Dominus ("Lord") for the divine name. Both versions preserve the same basic structure — verb of speech, divine subject, prepositional phrase naming Moses, and a participle/infinitive introducing the following speech (legōn in Greek, dicens in Latin) — matching the Hebrew formula without notable content divergence in this verse.