Leviticus 8:5

Summary

Moses addresses the assembled congregation and announces that what is about to happen has been commanded by Yehovah. The verse functions as an introductory formula before the ordination ritual of Aaron and his sons described in the following verses.

Key words

• va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the next event in the sequence of actions; establishes Moses as speaker.
• ha-'edah ("the congregation", H5712) — feminine singular noun with definite article, identifying the audience as the assembled community, not a private group.
• zeh ("this", H2088) — demonstrative particle opening Moses' direct speech, pointing forward to the ritual actions about to be performed.
• ha-davar ("the word/thing", H1697I) — masculine singular noun with definite article; here functions as "the matter/thing" rather than "word" in a speech sense.
• tzivvah ("he has commanded", H6680) — piel perfect verb, indicating a completed, authoritative command; the piel stem intensifies the notion of formal directive.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts: a narrative introduction (va-yomer mosheh el-ha'edah, "and Moses said to the congregation") and Moses' direct speech (zeh ha-davar 'asher-tzivvah YHWH la'asot, "this is the thing that Yehovah has commanded to do"). The demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088) combined with the definite noun ha-davar ("the thing", H1697I) forms a nominal sentence without an explicit copula in Hebrew — literally "this, the thing" — which functions as "this is the thing." This construction is common in Hebrew for formal announcements.

The relative clause 'asher-tzivvah YHWH la'asot ("which Yehovah has commanded to do") uses the piel perfect tzivvah (H6680), marking the command as already given and completed at a prior point, and the qal infinitive la'asot ("to do", H6213A) indicates the purpose or content of that command — what is to be carried out. The infinitive construction with the preposition la- (H9005) expresses the action still pending execution, distinguishing the giving of the command (past, perfect) from its execution (yet to occur, infinitive).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ha-davar ("the thing/word", H1697I) with a double statement: "τοῦτό ἐστιν τὸ ῥῆμα, τοῦτό ἐστιν ὃ ἐνετείλατο κύριος" ("this is the word, this is what the Lord commanded"), repeating the demonstrative clause, where the Hebrew has only one instance of zeh... asher. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) omits the reference to ha-'edah ("the congregation") entirely, beginning directly with "ait: Iste est sermo..." ("he said: This is the word..."), without specifying an addressee, where the Hebrew explicitly names ha-'edah (H5712) as the audience.