Numbers 15:17

Summary

The verse contains the standard narrative formula introducing divine speech: Yehovah speaks to Moses. It is a brief transitional clause marking the start of a new set of instructions, with no content of the speech itself given here.

Key words

• va-yedaBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel narrative verb with vav-consecutive; the piel stem here carries the sense of authoritative or formal speech, and the narrative vav links this speech-act directly to the preceding material as the next event in sequence.
• YHWH ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name functioning as grammatical subject of yedaBer.
• el ("to", H0413) — preposition marking Moses as the recipient/addressee of the speech.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper noun, indirect object of the verb, human addressee.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed le-, functioning adverbially to introduce the forthcoming direct quotation; it signals that reported speech follows.

What the text says

The clause follows a fixed pattern found throughout the legal sections of Numbers: verb–subject–prepositional phrase–infinitive marker. The verb yedaBer is in the piel stem, which in this formulaic usage denotes the act of formal or official speaking, distinct from a simple qal "to say." The vav prefixed to the verb is the narrative (waw-consecutive) form, which in Biblical Hebrew narrative sequences ties this sentence to the flow of preceding material, presenting the speech-event as the next link in a chain of divine communications rather than as an isolated statement.

The prepositional phrase el-Mosheh ("to Moses") identifies the addressee without further qualification — no epithet or added description of Moses appears in this verse, unlike some other introductory formulas in the Torah that add phrases such as "and to Aaron." The infinitive leMor ("saying") serves purely as a grammatical hinge, opening the quotation that will follow in the next verse; it carries no semantic content beyond signaling direct speech.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew, LXX (ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων, "the Lord spoke to Moses, saying"), and the modern translations given (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) all render the same formulaic content: subject, verb of speaking, addressee, and a marker introducing direct discourse. The VULCLEM text supplied, however, reads "Loquere filiis Israël, et dices ad eos" ("Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them"), which does not correspond to the introductory formula found in the Hebrew, LXX, or the other versions for this verse — it presents imperative second-person content rather than a third-person narrative report of Yehovah speaking to Moses.