Numbers 20:7

Summary

The verse reports that Yehovah spoke to Moses, introducing the divine speech that follows. It is a standard narrative formula marking the transition to direct discourse.

Key words

• va-y'daBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav; the piel stem gives the verb an intensive or communicative nuance (formal speaking/declaring) rather than the simple qal action, and the prefixed vav links this clause to the preceding narrative sequence.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — proper name functioning as the subject of the verb; identifies the speaker.
• 'el ("to", H0413) — preposition marking the addressee of the speech, directing the action toward Moses.
• mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, direct object of the preposition, identifying the recipient.
• le-'mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition le; functions here as a formulaic marker introducing direct quotation, roughly "as follows" or "saying."

What the text says

The Hebrew clause follows a fixed syntactic pattern common in narrative introductions to divine speech: verb (yedabber) + subject (Yehovah) + prepositional phrase ('el-Mosheh) + infinitive marker (le'mor). The verb yedabber is in the piel stem, which in this verb often carries a nuance of formal or official speech-act, distinct from the simpler qal form of related roots. The narrative vav prefixed to the verb ties this sentence directly into the flow of the preceding narrative, signaling continuation of the story rather than an isolated statement.

The construction le'mor, an infinitive construct built on the root 'mr ("to say"), functions almost like a colon in English — it does not add new semantic content beyond signaling that direct speech follows. This is a recurring formula throughout the narrative books, and its grammatical role is purely to introduce the quoted words of Yehovah that come after this verse.

The prepositional phrase 'el-Mosheh specifies the addressee without ambiguity, confirming that the following speech, whatever its content, is directed specifically to Moses, not to a group or to Aaron alone (who is not named in this formula, though he appears elsewhere in the chapter's narrative).

Differences between versions

No substantive divergence appears among the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate for this verse. The LXX elalēsen kyrios pros Mōusēn legōn ("and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying") and the Vulgate Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens ("And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying") both render the Hebrew formula closely, preserving the verb-subject-preposition-infinitive structure.