Numbers 4:17

Summary

The verse reports that Yehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron, introducing a divine communication. It functions as a formulaic narrative transition, opening a new set of instructions.

Key words

• va-yedaBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav, marking sequential action in the story; the piel stem here conveys the act of speaking as a discrete, intensive utterance rather than casual talk.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — proper name functioning as the subject of the verb, identifying the speaker.
• 'el ("to", H0413) — preposition marking the recipient of the speech, repeated before both "Moses" and "Aaron."
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) and 'Aharon ("Aaron", H0175) — proper names, both marked as indirect recipients via the preposition 'el, placing them grammatically on equal footing as addressees.
• leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed le, introducing direct or reported speech that follows; it signals that what comes next is the content of what was spoken.

What the text says

The verse follows a fixed narrative pattern common in the Hebrew text: a narrative vav attached to the verb yedaBer ("he spoke", H1696G) signals sequence within the ongoing story — this happened, and then this. The subject Yehovah (H3068G) follows the verb, standard word order for this formula (verb-subject). The verb is in the piel stem, which in this construction denotes the act of speaking with intensity or formality, distinct from the simpler qal stem of the same root.

The preposition 'el (H0413) appears twice, once before Mosheh (H4872) and once before 'Aharon (H0175), each joined by the conjunction ve (H9002, "and"). This repetition of the preposition treats Moses and Aaron as separate but jointly addressed recipients, rather than a single combined entity. The clause ends with leMor (H0559), an infinitive construct that functions here as a hinge, opening the reported speech that follows in subsequent verses. This is a standard formula introducing divine speech in the narrative and sets up the instructions that follow without stating their content in this verse.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew repeats the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) before both "Moses" and "Aaron." The LXX (Swete) renders this with a single πρὸς ("to") before "Moses," then joins "Aaron" with καὶ ("and") without repeating the preposition, slightly compressing the parallel structure found in the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly uses one prepositional phrase ("ad Moysen et Aaron") rather than repeating "to" for each name.