21st Century Bible Hebrew -- purposeful speech

Genesis 1:22

כב וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ אֹתָ֛ם אֱלֹהִ֖ים לֵאמֹ֑ר פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֗וּ וּמִלְא֤וּ אֶת־הַמַּ֨יִם֙ בַּיַּמִּ֔ים וְהָע֖וֹף יִ֥רֶב בָּאָֽרֶץ:

Gd blessed them saying: fruit and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, flyer multiply on earth.

Get to know lemor very well, it’s a high-frequency word.

It’s an aspectless verb with a l’ prefix, which you saw before.  I said then that while this prefix can often mean “to” or “for”, with an aspectless verb it has the nuance “for the purpose of”.

The structure is always a verb of speech in the narrative past, then possibly the speaker (unless it’s understood from the context), then lemor, and the lemor is often marked with the etnach like it is here.  (You have been keeping up with marking where the etnach is haven’t you?)

The idea that Gd would bless life forms for the purpose of saying something is not how we’re used to thinking of it in English.  The translations all have “saying”, as if what was said was a consequence of the blessing and not the blessing being the consequence of Gd’s purpose in speaking.

As you read your Biblical Hebrew, watch for lemor as introducing the purpose of Gd’s communication, not the consequence of His speaking.

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