Numbers 5:11

Summary

This verse is a formulaic introduction stating that Yehovah spoke to Moses. It contains no content of its own but serves as the narrative frame for the instructions that follow.

Key words

va-y'daBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav, marking the sequential action "and then he spoke"; the piel stem here carries the basic meaning of speaking (not a distinct intensive nuance in this common formula).

Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine proper name, functioning as the subject of the verb.

el- ("to", H0413) — preposition indicating the addressee of the speech, directing the action toward Moses.

Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, the recipient of the divine speech.

leMor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, introducing the discourse that follows; literally functions as "in saying" or "to say," marking the transition into direct speech.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows the standard verb-subject-object word order typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative: va-y'daBer ("and he spoke") + Yehovah (subject) + el-Mosheh ("to Moses") + leMor ("saying"). The narrative vav prefixed to the verb links this statement to the preceding material, presenting it as the next event in sequence rather than as an isolated statement.

The infinitive leMor ("saying", H0559) functions grammatically as a marker that opens direct discourse — it does not carry independent semantic weight beyond signaling that speech content follows. This construction (va-y'daBer Yehovah el-Mosheh leMor) is a recurring formula in the Torah, structurally identical across many passages, and here introduces the regulations that follow in Numbers 5.

No verbs, nouns, or grammatical forms in this verse carry ambiguity or nuance beyond the formulaic sense described above; the syntax is simple and direct, without subordinate clauses or particles requiring further grammatical explanation.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew va-y'daBer ("and he spoke") is rendered by the LXX as ἐλάλησεν ("he spoke") without a coordinating conjunction equivalent to "and," though the sense of sequence is preserved by context. The Vulgate renders it as Locutusque est ("and he spoke"), using the enclitic -que to mark the same narrative connection as the Hebrew vav. The BSB translation uses "Then the LORD said," employing "Then" instead of "And" to convey the sequential force of the narrative vav, while SBLIBRE and RV1909 omit an explicit conjunction, beginning directly with "Yehová habló" / "Y Jehová habló."