הכתב והקבלה — לכן אמר הנני נתן לו את בריתי שלום

Q — 'לכן אמר הנני נתן לו את בריתי שלום' is famously elliptical — to *whom* should Moshe say this? Targum Yonatan supplies 'לו' (say it to Pinchas himself). But why is the dative missing?

A — HaKtav VeHaKabbalah refuses to fill the gap. The word 'אמר' here is *not* the verb 'to say' but a different sense of the same root — *to elevate, exalt* — as in 'האמירך היום' (Devarim 26:18, 'He has elevated you today'), and 'אמרו לאלהים' (Tehillim 66:3, 'exalt'). Pinchas had been socially demeaned — 'הריתם בן פוטי זה שפיטם אבי אמו עגלים לעבודה זרה.' The dramatic act of zeal earned him a reversal: *elevation* to keter kehunah. The verse therefore reads: 'Therefore — *raise him up*: behold I give him My covenant of peace.' 'לכן אמר' is the general principle (he is to be elevated), and the rest is the specifics of the elevation. No ellipsis, no missing addressee — the verb just doesn't mean what we usually take it to mean.