Numbers 28:1

Summary

The verse reports that Yehovah spoke to Moses, using the standard introductory formula that opens a divine speech in the Hebrew Bible. It contains no content of the message itself, only the narrative marker that a communication from Yehovah to Moses is about to follow.

Key words

• va ("and", H9001) — narrative vav prefixed to the verb, marking this clause as a continuation of the ongoing narrative sequence, not an isolated statement.
• y.da.Ber ("he spoke", H1696G) — piel stem, an intensive verbal pattern here used in its common narrative sense of formal or authoritative speech; third person masculine singular, referring to Yehovah.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine proper name, functioning as the grammatical subject of the verb y.da.Ber.
• mo.Sheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, object of the preposition 'el- ("to", H0413), marking him as the recipient of the speech.
• Mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, attached to the preposition le. ("to", H9005), forming the fixed formula that introduces direct discourse to follow.

What the text says

The clause follows the standard Hebrew narrative syntax: verb first (y.da.Ber), then subject (Yehovah), then the prepositional phrase indicating the addressee ('el- mo.Sheh), closing with the infinitive le'mor ("saying"). This verb-subject-object order is typical of Hebrew narrative prose introduced by the vav-consecutive, here attached to a piel imperfect form, which is the standard verbal pattern for reporting speech acts in narrative sequence.

The infinitive construct le'mor, built from the preposition le. and the root 'mr ("to say"), functions here not as a full verb but as a formulaic marker announcing that direct speech follows. This construction — verb of speaking plus le'mor — is common throughout the legal and narrative sections of the Torah to introduce divine instructions given through Moses. The verse itself carries no semantic content beyond identifying the speaker, the addressee, and the fact that a speech act is initiated.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (Dixit quoque Dominus ad Moysen) adds the conjunction quoque ("also/likewise"), a connective not present as a distinct lexical item in the Hebrew va-, though both serve to link this verse to the preceding narrative. The LXX (καὶ ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων) follows the Hebrew word order and structure closely, rendering y.da.Ber with ἐλάλησεν and le'mor with the participle λέγων rather than an infinitive, a common Greek strategy for the Hebrew formula.