This page was migrated in July 2022 from my older website, biblicalambiguities.net.
31 July 2022 *Navigate 'up' to the Genesis index: index-genesis.
And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it: because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.
Due to the unfortunate placement of the first chapter division in the Bible, it is now not necessarily obvious to a casual reader that this verse is the final verse of the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:3). This first story, counting day by day, arrives at its conclusion, the basis for the institution of the Sabbath day.
Where the text says that God "rested" the Hebrew word here is a verb related to the noun shabbat "Sabbath."
Note that the text does not explicitly say, You are not allowed to work on the seventh day of the week. Instead, it assumes a knowledge of the basic concept of Sabbath, and it says to the reader, Your seven-day rest is an imitation of the rest of God at the origin of the world.
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