Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 23:3
Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day [is] the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no work [therein]: it [is] the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
The seventh day had been consecrated as the Sabbath of Yahweh, figuring His own rest; it was the acknowledged sign of the covenant between God and His people. See the Exo 20:1-11 notes. As such it properly held its place at the head of the days of holy convocation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. The seventh day is the Sabbath] This, because the first and greatest solemnity, is first mentioned. He who kept not this, in the most religious manner, was not capable of keeping any of the others. The religious observance of the Sabbath stands at the very threshold of all religion. See Clarke on Ge 2:3.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
No work; so it runs in the general for the sabbath day, and for the day of expiation, Lev 23:28, excluding all works about earthly occasions or employments, whether of profit or pleasure; but on other feast days he forbids only servile works, as Lev 23:7,21,36, for surely this manifest difference in the expressions used by the wise God must needs imply a difference in the things. In all your dwellings: this is added to distinguish the sabbath from other feasts, which were to be kept before the Lord in Jerusalem only, whither all the males were to come for that end; but the sabbath was to be kept in all places, where they were, both in synagogues, which were erected for that end, and in their private houses.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Six days shall work be done: butthe seventh day is the sabbath of rest(See on Ex20:8). The Sabbath has the precedence given to it, and it was tobe “a holy convocation,” observed by families “intheir dwellings”; where practicable, by the people repairing tothe door of the tabernacle; at later periods, by meeting in theschools of the prophets, and in synagogues.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Six days shall work be done,…. Or may be done by men, any sort of lawful work and honest labour, for the sustenance of themselves and families:
but the seventh day [is] the sabbath of rest; from all bodily labour and work of any kind; typical of rest by Christ and in him:
an holy convocation; when the people were called to holy exercises, to pray and praise, and hear the word, and offer sacrifice:
ye shall do no work [therein]; not any at all, see Ex 31:15;
it [is] the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings: other feasts were kept in the sanctuary, in the tabernacle or temple, or where they were; but this was not only observed there and in their synagogues, but in their private houses, or wherever they were, whether, travelling by sea or land; and so the Targum of Jonathan and Aben Ezra interpret it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
At the head of these moadim stood the Sabbath, as the day which God had already sanctified as a day of rest for His people, by His own rest on the seventh creation-day (Gen 2:3, cf. Exo 20:8-11). On , see at Exo 31:15 and Exo 16:33. As a weekly returning day of rest, the observance of which had its foundation in the creative work of God, the Sabbath was distinguished from the yearly feasts, in which Israel commemorated the facts connected with its elevation into a people of God, and which were generally called “feasts of Jehovah” in the stricter sense, and as such were distinguished from the Sabbath (Lev 23:37, Lev 23:38; Isa 1:13-14; 1Ch 23:31; 2Ch 31:3; Neh 10:34). This distinction is pointed out in the heading, “ these are the feasts of Jehovah ” (Lev 23:4).
(Note: Partly on account of his repetition, and partly because of the supposed discrepancy observable in the fact, that holy meetings are not prescribed for the Sabbath in the list of festal sacrifices in Num 28 and 29, Hupfield and Knobel maintain that the words of Lev 23:2 and Lev 23:3, from to , notwithstanding their Elohistic expression, were not written by the Elohist, but are an interpolation of the later editor. The repetition of the heading, however, cannot prove anything at all with the constant repetitions that occur in the so-called Elohistic groundwork, especially as it can be fully explained by the reason mentioned in the text. And the pretended discrepancy rests upon the perfectly arbitrary assumption, that Num 28 and 29 contain a complete codex of all the laws relating to all the feasts. How totally this assumption is at variance with the calendar of feasts, is clear enough from the fact, that no rule is laid down there for the observance of the Sabbath, with the exception of the sacrifices to be offered upon it, and that even rest from labour is not commanded. Moreover Knobel is wrong in identifying the “holy convocation” with a journey to the sanctuary, whereas appearance at the tabernacle to hold the holy convocations (for worship) was not regarded as necessary either in the law itself or according to the later orthodox custom, but, on the contrary, holy meetings for edification were held on the Sabbath in every place in the land, and it was out of this that the synagogues arose.)
In Num 28:11 the feast of new moon follows the Sabbath; but this is passed over here, because the new moon was not to be observed either with sabbatical rest or a holy meeting.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(3) Six days shall work be done.Recurring every week, and being the most important as well as the oldest of all festivals, the sabbath introduces the holy seasons. Hence, during the second Temple it was declared that the sabbath is in importance equal to the whole law; he who profanes the sabbath openly is like him who transgresses the whole law. The hour at which it began and ended was announced by three blasts of the trumpets.
Ye shall do no work therein.Better, ye shall do no manner of work, as the Authorised version renders this phrase in Lev. 23:31 of this very chapter. (See Lev. 16:29.) Whilst on all other festivals servile work only was forbidden (see Lev. 23:7-8; Lev. 23:21; Lev. 23:25; Lev. 23:35-36), and work connected with the preparation of the necessary food was permitted (see Exo. 12:16), the sabbath and the day of atonement were the only days on which the Israelites were prohibited to engage in any work whatsoever. (See Lev. 23:28; Lev. 23:30; Lev. 16:29.) Though manual labour on the sabbath was punished with death by lapidation (see Exo. 31:14-15; Exo. 35:2; Num. 15:35-36), and though the authorities during the second Temple multiplied and registered most minutely the things which constitute labour, yet these administrators of the Law have enacted that in cases of illness and of any danger work is permitted. They laid down the principle that the sabbath is delivered into your hand, but not you into the hand of the sabbath. Similar is the declaration of Christ (Mat. 12:8, Mar. 2:27-28).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE SABBATH.
3. The seventh day is the sabbath See notes on Exo 16:23; Exo 20:8-11.
Ye shall do no work Except in obedience to the higher law of brotherly kindness, (Exo 23:4; Deu 22:1-4,) and of compassion to the brute creature, (Mat 12:11,) commonly called works of necessity and of mercy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Sabbath ( Lev 23:3 ).
Lev 23:3
“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no manner of work. It is a sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings.”
The first celebration mentioned is of the seventh day feast. This was the Sabbath, the seventh day, the day laid down in the covenant beginning at sunset after each period of six working days when all work was to cease in the camp, and later throughout the land (Exo 20:11; Deu 5:12-14). Wherever they were throughout the land they would on that day cease from labour, both they, and all their servants, and all their bond-men and women. No manner of work could be done. It was a Sabbath of solemn rest, in every dwelling. The whole of Israel was to stop work as one. And as work ceased they would remember, ‘we were once in bondage in the land of Egypt, we had to work without ceasing, and by His mighty power Yahweh delivered us’ (Deu 5:15).
The Sabbath was a holy ‘calling-together’ in an act of obedience and tribute to Yahweh, and recognition of His overlordship. This more than anything else would bind them together, distinguishing them from all others, and forming a bond of unity between them. They were the Sabbath-keepers to the glory of Yahweh.
On this day at the Central Sanctuary two lambs instead of one would be offered for the morning and evening sacrifices (Num 28:9), and twelve loaves of showbread were presented to God (Lev 24:5-9; 1Ch 9:32). However far they may be from that Sanctuary they would be aware that ‘the Priest’ was offering these on their behalf.
There was no day like it anywhere else in the world. The Babylonian sabbatu was not part of a regular cycle but occurred on specific days of the month (the fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty first and twenty eighth), and was for the purposes of religious observance and sacrifices in order to divert the wrath of certain gods. But it was limited to certain classes of society, including the ruler and certain priests, while work continued on it for others, as is evidenced by business contracts of which we have copies. It was not a day of total rest. Other nations also had days in the month on which there were certain restrictions, but none like the Sabbath. The Sabbath was totally free from connection with the moon (see below). It was a new idea altogether.
We are so used to the idea of ‘a week’ that we automatically read it into Scripture. But everyone, including Israel, dated things by the moon. Everything happened on such and such a day of a moon period. The first possible mention of ‘a week’ in the sense in which we know it was in Jer 5:24, and even there it is extremely questionable. Otherwise the concept does not appear in the Old Testament. (Where we find the translation ‘week’ we should retranslate as ‘seven’). The seven day period leading up to the Sabbath operated independently of dating. There is never any reference to a particular ‘day of the week’, it is always to a ‘day of the month’.
With regard to the Sabbath being a day of complete cessation of all work it is difficult for us in our day, when we have so much free time, to recognise what it must have been like to live in days when some had no free time at all, and when many could find themselves literally worked without respite until they died of exhaustion. The Sabbath ensured that this could not happen to anyone in Israel. No exceptions were allowed specifically for this reason. Men must not be allowed to find a way round it. All men, slave or free, must every seventh day have that one day of total rest.
The timing of the ‘seventh’ day Sabbath was probably determined by the first day on which manna appeared (Exo 16:23). Whether it was known before that we do not know. There is no mention of the Sabbath prior to that point, nor of a regular day when men were to cease to work, even though, once commenced, it was patterned on the seventh day of the creation narrative. But Moses declared that the reason that Yahweh had given them the Sabbath was as a reminder of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt by His mighty power (Deu 5:15). Isaiah would later stress that it was to be a day when men remembered God and sought His pleasure and not their own (Isa 58:13-14). Then they would be blessed indeed.
Note On The Sabbath.
The first mention of the Sabbath is in Exodus 16. The impression given there (Lev 23:23; Lev 23:25-26; Lev 23:29) is that when Moses spoke of the Sabbath he was imparting new information. He was declaring that at the same time as the giving of the Manna God had given them the Sabbath (Lev 23:29). He explained that the seventh day of the giving of the manna was to be a holy sabbath (a ‘ceasing from work’), and therefore also that every seventh day after that was to be a Sabbath as it followed a six day supply of Manna.
Indeed the ‘rulers’ were confused about it and had to have it explained to them (Lev 23:22). This can only be explained by the fact that they were at this stage unaware of a regular Sabbath. If they had been their question could hardly have arisen. Had the Sabbath already been instituted they would have expected that there should be no gathering on the Sabbath.
The seventh day Sabbath was then firmly established as something which was to continue while the Manna was given (Lev 23:26). Later in the giving of the covenant at Sinai it was made a permanent feature, and there it was made a reminder of creation (Exo 20:8-11) which established its permanence. God had rested on the seventh day and blessed it, and now also so must Israel on each seventh day that followed the giving of Manna. But it should be noted that the creation account says nothing about the Sabbath, nor about ‘a week’. Nor does it suggest that time should follow that pattern. It simply speaks of a divinely perfect period of ‘seven days’.
In fact Moses specifically declared in Deu 5:15 that the reason that Yahweh commanded them to keep the Sabbath day was as a memorial of their delivery from Egypt, with the ceasing from work symbolising their ceasing from bondage. Every Sabbath as they ceased work it would be a reminder of that great deliverance from bondage by the mighty power of Yahweh.
This gives good reason to think that Exodus 16 was in fact the time when the regular permanent seventh day Sabbath was first established, in order to commemorate the giving of the Manna as something better than the bread of Egypt, and as a symbol of deliverance and of God’s care. Previously holy rest days had been mentioned on which all work should cease (Exo 12:16), and they were sometimes, but not always, ‘seventh days’, but they had never been called sabbaths, and they were specific memorial days indicating the beginning and ending of special feasts. The Sabbath was something new.
Because it was a sabbath (shabbath – a stopping of work) they were to cease work on it. It was a holy rest (shabbathon). This would hardly have needed to be explained if they were familiar with it.
So while no specific statement was made in Exodus 16 that it was a new institution, everything about the narrative suggests that it was. The sabbath had not previously been mentioned, and the only mention of a seventh day feast previously was in Exo 13:6 and there it was a seventh day numbered from another day (the first day after the fourteenth day of Abib) fixed by the moon. And new and full moons did not always occur on a specific day of the week. Indeed in Exodus 13 there was also a special feast on the first day after the fourteenth of Abib as well as on the seventh after. Both were holy days. This was the pattern of special days elsewhere. They were on fixed days of a moon period
It may well be therefore that the first giving of the Manna also represented the first establishing of the strict seven day ‘week’ pattern and of the regular Sabbath. Previously they probably simply numbered the days of each moon period and have utilised periods of the moon for recording time, or followed the ways of the Egyptians. This new way of measuring time from one Sabbath to another would be another indication of their new nationhood, and their new position under God their Provider. But they still dated everything under the old non-week system.
Indeed had the Sabbath and the seven day period on which it ended already been a well recognised feature we might have expected that those who broke it (Exo 16:27) would be put to death (compare Num 15:32-36). But instead they are only rebuked for having disobeyed the command not to gather.
It is also interesting to note that there is no specific emphasis in Exodus 16 of doing no work, although it may possibly be seen as implied in Lev 23:23 and Lev 23:26-27, the latter only being stated, however, after the failure to observe the Sabbath. This may be why they were only rebuked.
If this be so its introduction was probably made easier by the fact that ‘seven days’ (not directly related to the week) was often seen as a holy period (see Gen 7:4; Gen 7:10; Gen 8:10; Gen 8:12; Gen 8:22; Gen 29:27-28; Gen 50:10; Exo 7:25; Exo 12:15; Exo 12:19; Exo 13:6-7 and often). Seven was the number of divine perfection. Thus they learned that from now on their life was in a sense to be made up of holy periods of seven days in which God provided their food for six days, followed by a day on which they ceased work as a reminder of their deliverance from bondage.
It is true that in Gen 2:1-3 God stopped working on ‘the seventh day’ from all His activity in creation, but that is not applied there to any requirement for man to observe it, and had it been a requirement when that was written we would have expected it to be mentioned, especially if that was the intention. Nor is the seventh day there called the Sabbath, although it is true that shabbath is related to shabath, to stop, be at a standstill, stop working, the verb used there. Later in Exo 20:10 (see also Exo 31:17) this example is given as proving that the idea of the seventh day was something which God has blessed but there is no necessary suggestion or indication that the Sabbath itself was inaugurated at the time of creation. Creation did not take place in a ‘week’, it took place over a seven day period. The distinction is important for accuracy. As we have seen in Deu 5:14-15 it is in fact the deliverance from Egypt that is given as the reason why God instituted the Sabbath. The bondmen had become free and in gladness and gratitude would honour Yahweh by dedicating a work-free day to Him.
Thus we should note that ‘the seventh day’ was not something that was fixed as the last day in a week. The week did not come first. The idea of the seventh day of a series of days came first. The reason that it was special was precisely because it was the seventh day of a divinely complete series. It was because God introduced the idea of a Sabbath every seventh day in Exodus 16 to follow each six day series of giving of the Manna that the week eventually resulted. This brings out how important the Manna was seen to be, that the giving of it led up after each six day period to a Sabbath. God was sealing the fact that it was a divine supply. But for calendar purposes they still thought of moon periods.
End of Note.
So the Sabbath was to be seen as primary. It would distinguish Yahweh’s people from all others, and ensured that on one day in seven they turned from the demands and trials of daily life to a day of contemplation and worship. Every seven days they would observe a feast. It was to be Yahweh’s day, a day of ceasing work and a day of remembering. It reminded them of creation, and of the Creator (Exo 20:11). It reminded them that their lives continually followed His creation pattern. It reminded them that they had been delivered from bondage in the land of Egypt, that they had not been able to cease work then, and that Yahweh had mightily delivered them. Indeed the latter is why He commanded them to keep the Sabbath day (Deu 5:15).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 23:3. The sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings The Sabbath is first briefly mentioned, as being the first and chief of these solemn meetings; at all times and in all places religiously to be observed, in all their dwellings.
REFLECTIONS.The sabbath was a weekly feast, and still is such, to every true believer, who especially fears then on God’s word and ordinances. A holy rest was to be observed. We must rest from sin as from labour. There was on it to be a holy convocation. Nothing on that day must keep us from waiting in the courts of God’s house togethernothing but works of necessity. Note; If servants are kept from Divine service to provide for our bodies, when they should be feeding their own souls, the guilt of sabbath-breaking will be against the heads of that family. And not only by a convocation, but in their dwellings the sabbath must be kept; public duties are but a part of the service; on that day every house must be a temple, and resound with prayer and praise. To prostitute the hours of the evening in vanity, or visiting, or idleness, is to profane the day, as much as when we forsake the assembly of God’s people.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The first feast mentioned in its place, is that of the sabbath, which, as it is the most ancient, so is it the most universal. JESUS hath given his sanction to it throughout his blessed gospel; for he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil. Reader, suffer me in this place to remark, concerning our Christian Sabbath, that I pray GOD you and I may find JESUS himself to be the very Sabbath of our souls, that we may rest in him from sin, and rest in him to GOD: that it may be a Sabbath in our houses, in our families, in our hearts: and that he that sanctifieth it to us, may sanctify our souls in the observance of it. See those sweet scriptures, Isa_58:13-14; Isa_28:12 compared with Mat 11:28-29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 23:3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day [is] the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work [therein]: it [is] the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
Ver. 3. Ye shall do no work therein. ] Save only works of piety, charity, and necessity. These are allowed by our Saviour. Mar 2:23-28 ; Mar 3:4 The Jews superstitiously hold, a that it is not lawful for a blind man to lean upon a staff on a Sabbath day, as the lame may: that if a flea bite a man on that day, he may take it, but not kill it. That if a thorn prick him in the foot on that day, he may not pull it out. That a tailor may not carry a needle, much less a sword; that a man may not spet, b or be taken out of a jakes, as that Jew of Tewkesbury, who said,
“ Sabbata santa colo, de stercore c surgere nolo. ”
Whereunto the Earl of Gloucester replied,
“ “Sabbata nostra quidem (Solomon) celebrabis ibidem.” ”
“(Sir, reverence d of the Sabbath keeps me here:
And you, sir, reverence e shall our Sabbath there.)”
In all your dwellings.
a Ranulph., lib. vii. cap. 37.
b [?Spit.]
c [A play upon the double meaning of the word stercus. See Ainsworth’s Dictionary. ]
d Ibid.
e Idid.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
sabbath of rest. See note on Exo 16:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lev 19:3, Exo 16:23, Exo 16:29, Exo 20:8-11, Exo 23:12, Exo 31:15, Exo 34:21, Exo 35:2, Exo 35:3, Deu 5:13, Isa 56:2, Isa 56:6, Isa 58:13, Luk 13:14, Luk 23:56, Act 15:21, Rev 1:10
Reciprocal: Gen 2:3 – blessed Exo 12:16 – first day Exo 16:30 – General Exo 31:13 – Verily Lev 16:29 – do no Lev 23:38 – the sabbaths Num 28:25 – ye shall do Neh 10:31 – the people Jer 17:22 – neither do Eze 20:12 – I gave Col 2:16 – or of the sabbath
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 23:3. The seventh day is first named as a holy convocation A day to be kept holy by every Israelite, in all places wheresoever they dwelt, as well as while they lived in the wilderness; and as a day of rest, in which they were to do no work A similar prohibition is declared Lev 23:28, concerning the day of expiation, excluding all works about earthly employments, whether of profit or of pleasure; but upon other feast-days he forbids only servile works, as Lev 23:7; Lev 23:21; Lev 23:36; for surely this manifest difference in the expressions used by the wise God, must needs imply a difference in the things. In all your dwellings Other feasts were to be kept before the Lord in Jerusalem only, whither all the males were to come for that end; but the sabbath was to be kept in all places, both in synagogues, and in their private houses.