Leviticus 23:32

23:32 It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening until evening you must observe your Sabbath.” ¹ 

Leviticus 25:4

25:4 but in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest ²  – a Sabbath to the Lord. You must not sow your field or ³  prune your vineyard.

Exodus 31:15

31:15 Six days ⁴  work may be done, ⁵  but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, ⁶  holy to the Lord; anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death.

Exodus 35:2

35:2 In six days ⁷  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ⁸  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ⁹  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

¹ tn Heb “you shall rest your Sabbath.”

² tn Heb “and in the seventh year a Sabbath of complete rest shall be to the land.” The expression “a Sabbath of complete rest” is superlative, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the seventh year of the sabbatical cycle. Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest”; NAB “a complete rest.”

³ tn Heb “and.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has an alternative sense (“or”).

⁴ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time, indicating that work may be done for six days out of the week.

⁵ tn The form is a Niphal imperfect; it has the nuance of permission in this sentence, for the sentence is simply saying that the six days are work days – that is when work may be done.

⁶ tn The expression is שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbat shabbaton), “a Sabbath of entire rest,” or better, “a sabbath of complete desisting” (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 404). The second noun, the modifying genitive, is an abstract noun. The repetition provides the superlative idea that complete rest is the order of the day.

⁷ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

⁸ tn The word is קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holiness”). S. R. Driver suggests that the word was transposed, and the line should read: “a sabbath of entire rest, holy to Jehovah” (Exodus, 379). But the word may simply be taken as a substitution for “holy day.”

⁹ sn See on this H. Routtenberg, “The Laws of the Sabbath: Biblical Sources,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 41-43, 99-101, 153-55, 204-6; G. Robinson, “The Idea of Rest in the Old Testament and the Search for the Basic Character of Sabbath,” ZAW 92 (1980): 32-43.