Leviticus 27:1

Summary

The verse is a short introductory formula stating that Yehovah spoke to Moses. It functions as an opening marker signaling that a new set of divine instructions follows, without yet stating their content.

Key words

• va ("and", H9001) — narrative vav prefixed to the verb, linking this statement to the preceding narrative sequence and marking it as the next event in the chain.
• yedaBer ("he spoke", H1696G) — verb in the piel stem (intensive/factitive), narrative form, third person masculine singular; the piel here conveys the act of speaking authoritatively.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the proper name of the deity, functioning as the subject of the verb.
• el ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the direction of the speech, toward Moses.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, introduced by the preposition le, functioning to introduce direct or reported speech that follows.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a standard verb-subject-object order typical of narrative prose: vayedaBer ("and he spoke") + Yehovah (subject) + el-Mosheh ("to Moses"). The narrative vav on vayedaBer ties this clause syntactically to the preceding material, presenting it as a continuation of the unfolding account rather than an isolated statement. The piel stem of dabar (H1696G) is the form regularly used in this formula throughout the text for reporting speech acts of Yehovah, distinguishing it from the simpler qal stem used elsewhere for ordinary speaking.

The final element, leMor (H0559), is a qal infinitive construct governed by the preposition le. Its grammatical role is to introduce the content of the speech that follows in the subsequent verses; it does not itself carry semantic weight beyond signaling "as follows" or "saying." This construction — vayedaBer Yehovah el-Mosheh leMor — is a fixed formulaic sequence marking the boundary between narrative introduction and the legal or instructional material to come.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew leMor ("saying") is rendered in the LXX as legōn ("saying"), a participle rather than an infinitive, which is a normal grammatical adjustment between the two languages rather than a difference in meaning. The Vulgate uses dicens ("saying"), also a participle, matching the LXX's structural choice. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation renders the formula with two verbs ("le habló... y le dijo"), splitting what is a single Hebrew verb-plus-infinitive construction into two coordinated verbs, a stylistic expansion not present in the Hebrew syntax itself.