Leviticus 22:1

Summary

The verse consists of a single introductory formula: Yehovah speaks to Moses. It contains no independent content but functions as a narrative marker that opens a new unit of divine speech, which will be developed in the following verses.

Key words

• va ("and", H9001) — narrative vav prefixed to the verb, marking the continuation of the narrative sequence with the previous chapter's material.
• y.daBer ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb, third person masculine singular, narrative form. The piel stem here carries the basic meaning "to speak," a use standard in this type of introductory formula.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name functioning as the subject of the verb y.daBer.
• 'el- ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the addressee of the speech, introducing moSheh.
• Mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, introduced by the preposition le (H9005). It functions as the formula that opens the direct quotation that follows.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows the fixed structure verb-subject-complement typical of the formulas that introduce divine speeches in this book: va-y.daBer ("and he spoke") + Yehovah (subject) + 'el-moSheh ("to Moses") + le-Mor ("saying"). The verbal form y.daBer is in piel, a stem that in this verb is used to express "speaking" as a communicative act, without necessarily implying additional intensity — it is the stem in which this root normally appears when it means "to speak."

The construction le-Mor (preposition le + infinitive of 'amar, "to say") functions grammatically as a subordinate clause that introduces the content of the speech: literally "saying," it opens the quoted words that Yehovah directs to Moses in the verses that follow. This formula does not carry semantic content of its own beyond marking the transition from narration to direct speech; its function is structural, delimiting where the narrator's voice ends and the reported voice begins.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (ἐλάλησεν Κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων) and the Vulgate (Locutus quoque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens) reproduce the same formulaic structure as the Hebrew, with equivalent verb-subject-preposition-infinitive order. The Vulgate adds quoque ("also"), a connective particle that is not represented in the Hebrew text nor in the LXX, and that reinforces the narrative continuity with the preceding material.