Numbers 6:1

Summary

Numbers 6:1 opens a new divine speech unit: Yehovah addresses Moses to transmit instructions. The verse consists entirely of the introductory formula that frames the legal material following it, with no additional content of its own.

Key words

• va-y'daBer ("and he spoke", H1696G) — piel verb with narrative vav; the piel stem here carries the ordinary intensive/factitive sense used for authoritative speech, and the narrative vav links this act of speaking as the next event in the sequence of divine communications to Moses.
• Yehovah ("Yehovah", H3068G) — proper name functioning as the subject of the verb; identifies the speaker as the divine name used throughout this narrative frame.
• 'el- ("to", H0413) — preposition marking Moses as the recipient/addressee of the speech, establishing the directionality of communication.
• Mosheh ("Moses", H4872) — proper name, object of the preposition, the human recipient of the message.
• le-'mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive with prefixed preposition le; functions adverbially to introduce direct or reported speech that follows, a standard formula meaning roughly "in the following words."

What the text says

The Hebrew clause follows the fixed pattern verb–subject–prepositional phrase–infinitive: va-y'daBer ("and he spoke") + Yehovah (subject) + 'el-Mosheh ("to Moses") + le-'mor ("saying"). This word order (verb first) is typical of Biblical Hebrew narrative syntax, where the narrative vav attached to a prefix-conjugation verb (wayyiqtol) advances the storyline. The infinitive le-'mor at the end does not add new semantic content beyond "speaking"; grammatically it functions as a bridge introducing what is about to be quoted directly afterward (the legal instructions concerning the Nazirite vow that follow in v. 2).

No pronominal suffixes, adjectives, or additional modifiers appear in this verse — it is a minimal formulaic introduction. The construction is identical in structure to numerous other introductory formulas in the Pentateuch that mark the beginning of divine legislation transmitted through Moses.

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων) and the Vulgate (Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens) both render the Hebrew formula with equivalent grammatical structures: a finite verb of speaking, the subject (rendered as κύριος/Dominus, "Lord," rather than transliterating the name Yehovah), the preposition plus addressee, and a participle (λέγων/dicens) corresponding to the Hebrew infinitive le-'mor. This substitution of "Lord" for the divine name Yehovah is consistent between LXX and Vulgate and reflects a translational convention rather than a difference in the underlying grammatical structure of the sentence.