Numbers 15:37

Summary

The verse records a brief narrative formula: Yehovah (Yehovah, H3068G) speaks to Moses (Mosheh, H4872), introducing direct discourse that will follow in subsequent verses. It contains no content of the message itself, only the introductory frame.

Key words

• va ("and", H9001) — the narrative vav prefixed to the verb, which links this clause to the preceding narrative sequence and signals continuation of the story ("and then...").
• yomer ("he said", H0559) — qal verb in the narrative (wayyiqtol) form, third person masculine singular; this form marks a completed, sequential action in past narrative.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the proper name functioning as grammatical subject of the verb yomer.
• 'el ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the addressee of the speech, here directing the action toward Moses.
• mor ("saying", H0559) — infinitive construct of the same root as yomer, prefixed with le ("to/in", H9005); this infinitive construct functions as a quotation marker, formally opening direct speech.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause follows the standard narrative pattern found throughout the Pentateuch for introducing divine speech: subject-initial verb (yomer), followed by the subject Yehovah, the prepositional phrase 'el-Mosheh ("to Moses"), and closing with the infinitive le'mor ("saying"). This infinitive construct le'mor is grammatically redundant with yomer in terms of root meaning (both derive from H0559, "to say"), but it serves a distinct syntactic function: it formally opens the direct quotation that follows in the text, acting as a kind of verbal colon before reported speech begins.

The verse itself contains no semantic content beyond this introductory formula — it is a frame verse, structurally parallel to many other formulaic introductions of divine instruction in Numbers. The construction va-yomer... le'mor is repeated with high frequency in the legal and narrative sections of the Torah, marking transitions between narrative report and direct divine speech.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew double occurrence of the root H0559 (yomer ... le'mor, "he said ... saying") is preserved in the Greek LXX with εἶπεν ("he said") and λέγων ("saying"), maintaining the same doubled structure. The Vulgate uses only "Dixit" ("he said") without a corresponding participial or infinitival echo, collapsing the Hebrew's two-part formula into a single verb. Modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) likewise render only one verb of speech, following the Vulgate's simplification rather than reproducing the Hebrew's doubled construction.