Leviticus 22:17

Summary

Leviticus 22:17 opens a new divine speech unit: Yehovah addresses Moses. It is a standard narrative formula that introduces the instructions that follow, without yet stating their content.

Key words

• va ("and", H9001) — narrative vav prefixed to the verb, marking sequential continuation of the story ("and then...").
• y.da.Ber ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel (intensive stem) verb, third person masculine, narrative form; the piel stem here conveys the act of speaking/declaring rather than a simple utterance.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — proper name functioning as subject of the verb, identifying the speaker.
• mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, object of the preposition 'el ("to", H0413), marking the recipient of the speech.
• Mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, attached to the preposition le ("to", H9005), forming the standard introductory phrase "saying" that precedes reported speech.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows the typical verb-subject-object word order of narrative prose: the verb y.da.Ber ("he spoke") comes first, followed by the subject Yehovah, then the prepositional phrase 'el-mo.Sheh ("to Moses"), and finally the infinitive le.Mor ("saying"). This construction — verb of speech plus le'mor — is a recurring formula in the legal sections of Leviticus that signals the beginning of a divine instruction, functioning almost like a heading rather than a narrated event with independent content.

The piel stem of y.da.Ber is worth noting grammatically: this stem is regularly used for the verb "to speak" in its basic active sense in Biblical Hebrew, and here it simply marks the formal, direct address from Yehovah to Moses, without additional nuance of repetition or intensity beyond the standard usage of this root in this stem. The infinitive le.Mor does not introduce new grammatical subjects or objects; it functions purely as a discourse marker equivalent to opening quotation of what is about to be said, which in this verse is not yet given — the content follows in subsequent verses.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate all preserve the same basic structure and content: subject (Yehovah/Κύριος/Dominus) + verb of speaking + recipient (Moses/Μωυσῆν/Moysen) + a marker introducing speech (le'mor/λέγων/dicens). No substantive divergence in meaning or word choice appears among the versions for this verse; all render the formulaic introduction with equivalent grammatical elements in their respective languages.