Leviticus 23:44

Summary

The verse closes the section on the festival calendar by stating that Moses communicated the mo'adei ("appointed feasts of", H4150H) of Yehovah to the people of Israel. It functions as a narrative closing formula, marking the conclusion of the legislation given earlier in the chapter.

Key words

• va-y'daber ("and he spoke", H1696I) — piel verb with narrative vav, indicating a completed, sequential action: "and then he spoke." The piel form carries an intensive nuance beyond a simple utterance, suggesting formal declaration.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, subject of the verb; grammatically it is Moses, not Yehovah, who performs the speech-act here.
• mo'adei ("appointed feasts of", H4150H) — masculine plural noun in construct state, meaning it must be linked to what follows ("feasts of X"), here completed by Yehovah.
• b'nei ("sons/people of", H1121G) — masculine plural construct noun, likewise bound to the following name, forming "sons of Israel."
• 'et- (H0853) — the direct object marker, syntactically flagging mo'adei Yehovah as the direct object of the verb y'daber.

What the text says

The clause follows a standard Hebrew narrative pattern: verb (va-y'daber) + subject (Mosheh) + direct object marked by 'et- (mo'adei Yehovah) + prepositional phrase introduced by 'el- ("to") + indirect object (b'nei Yisra'el). This order places the action and its agent first, then specifies what was spoken and to whom. The construct chain mo'adei Yehovah ("appointed feasts of Yehovah") ties the content of the speech directly to Yehovah as the one to whom the feasts belong, while Moses remains the human transmitter. The double construct structure (mo'adei Yehovah and b'nei Yisra'el) is typical of Hebrew genitive relationships, where two nouns are bound together without an intervening "of" that must be supplied in translation.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the object differently: instead of "the appointed feasts of the LORD," it reads τὰς ἑορτὰς Τυρίου ("the feasts of Tyre/Tyrios"), diverging from the Hebrew mo'adei Yehovah ("feasts of Yehovah"). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew sense more closely with "super solemnitatibus Domini" ("concerning the solemnities of the Lord"), though it uses a different preposition structure ("super... ad") than the Hebrew's direct object plus "to" construction. The Spanish RV1909 and SBLIBRE both preserve "de Jehová/Yehová" corresponding to the Hebrew Yehovah, aligning with the Hebrew and differing from the LXX's reading.