Numbers 3:44

Summary

Numbers 3:44 records a short introductory formula: Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) spoke to Mosheh ("Moses", H4872), introducing a divine communication. The verse itself contains no content beyond this speech-formula, which functions as a narrative marker preceding what Yehovah actually says.

Key words

• va-y'daBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — narrative vav prefixed to a Piel verb; the vav signals sequential narration ("and then"), and the Piel stem gives the verb an intensive or declarative force, common in formulas of divine speech.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the subject of the verb, the divine name functioning as proper noun/title.
• 'el- ("to", H0413) — preposition marking the addressee, Mosheh ("Moses", H4872), as the recipient of the speech.
• le-Mor ("saying", H0559) — Qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition le ("to/in"), forming the standard "saying" clause that opens the direct discourse to follow.

What the text says

The Hebrew clause follows the fixed pattern verb–subject–prepositional phrase–infinitive: va-y'daBer ("and he spoke") + Yehovah ("Yehovah") + 'el-Mosheh ("to Moses") + le-Mor ("saying"). This word order, with the verb first, is typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative syntax, where the narrative vav plus a finite verb (here Piel y'daBer) advances the storyline. The Piel stem of daBer ("to speak") is the form regularly used for formal or authoritative speech, distinguishing it from the more basic Qal usage of the same root elsewhere.

The infinitive le-Mor ("saying") does not carry independent tense; it functions here as a discourse marker that opens direct speech, a construction repeated dozens of times in the Pentateuch to introduce divine instructions. The verse as given contains only this introductory formula, with the content of what Yehovah says appearing in the following verses of the chapter, not in this verse itself.

Differences between versions

The Greek text as cited, "Καὶ ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς λέγων," lacks an explicit object noun after the preposition πρὸς ("to"), where one would expect a name such as Μωυσῆν ("Moses") corresponding to the Hebrew 'el-Mosheh ("to Moses", H0413 + H4872). The Vulgate (Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens) and the Hebrew both explicitly name Moses as the addressee, while the Greek text supplied here does not preserve that name in the same position.