לֵאמֹ֑ר (lê·mōr) in Genesis 1:22: Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
לֵאמֹ֑ר (lê·mōr) in Genesis 1:22
Source Word
The BSB+ row for Genesis 1:22 links the English rendering "[and] said" with לֵאמֹ֑ר, Strong's H559, and the parsing label Prep-l | V-Qal-Inf.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form links God's blessing with the speech that follows. It helps the reader hear the command to be fruitful and multiply as spoken blessing, while Genesis 1 supplies the doctrine of God's creating word.
How To Communicate It
Explain this as the Hebrew speech-introduction pattern, close to "saying." That keeps the focus on the words God speaks in the verse without making the form carry the whole theology of divine speech.
What Not To Say
- Grammar should serve context, not override it.
- Do not make the inf label prove more than the sentence supports.
- Do not use the stem label by itself to settle a theological claim.
- Do not treat this occurrence as a complete word study for the whole Hebrew lemma.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Lamed preposition
Qal
Inf
Not marked
Not marked
Not marked
The morphology identifies the form, but Genesis 1:22 supplies the sentence role and theological meaning.
This form carries the BSB rendering "[and] said" within Genesis 1:22. Genesis 1 presents God ordering, filling, naming, blessing, and giving life to the created world by his word.
What The Form Does In This Verse
The speech-introduction phrase rendered "[and] said" in Genesis 1:22
The phrase follows God's blessing and introduces the words spoken to the creatures.
It uses a lamed-prefixed infinitive of saying to introduce the content of God's blessing command.
It does not turn the infinitive into a separate main speech event, and it does not build a whole theology of divine speech apart from Genesis 1:22.
How Much The Form Matters Here
Moderate: The form introduces divine speech in Genesis 1:22, but the verse and surrounding creation account supply the larger theological weight.
Speech-introduction infinitive. introduces the content of the blessing command. Attached to the words spoken after God's blessing. Governed by the clause describing God's blessing. The form introduces speech content; it does not create an independent sentence claim by itself.
What does this form introduce? It introduces the words God speaks as part of His blessing in Genesis 1:22.
Supporting: The lamed-prefixed infinitive supports the English speech formula "[and] said," even when English smooths the idiom.
The form is an infinitive of saying used in a speech formula; the following words determine the content introduced. The form supports the speech introduction but does not by itself prove every claim about divine speech.
Speech formula proves a full doctrine: The form introduces quoted speech; Genesis 1 as a passage supplies the broader doctrine of God's word. Qal means simple action: Qal names the stem here; context, lexeme, and syntax explain the force.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The BSB+ row for Genesis 1:22 links the English rendering "[and] said" with לֵאמֹ֑ר, Strong's H559, and the parsing label Prep-l | V-Qal-Inf.
H559 is represented here by the lemma אָמַר. In this occurrence, the public guide is limited to the BSB rendering "[and] said" rather than every possible gloss of the entry.
The lamed-prefixed infinitive of saying introduces the words attached to God's blessing in Genesis 1:22.
Genesis 1 presents God ordering, filling, naming, blessing, and giving life to the created world by his word.
The form fits Scripture's opening witness that creation is received from God and interpreted under his speech and order.
When teaching Genesis 1:22, connect the lamed-prefixed infinitive to the spoken blessing that follows, rather than treating it as an isolated dictionary form.
Do not derive a full word study, grammar doctrine, or passage theology from Prep-l | V-Qal-Inf alone. The form introduces this occurrence-level speech content.