Biblical injunctions on Sabbath: examples
| Ex 20: 8-11 | Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath and made it holy. |
| Ex 16:22-26 | Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread (manna from heaven), two omers (dry measure) for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, "This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD... Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none." |
| Ex 34:21 | You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest shall you rest. |
| Ex 35:3 | You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath day. |
| Neh 13: 15-17 | no buying and selling of goods on the sabbath day |
| Jer 17:21-22; Neh 13:19 | no carrying goods on the sabbath day |
| Talmud | the Talmud lists altogether 39 categories of work prohibited on the sabbath day |
Questions for reflection:
Why is the differentiation between the sabbath and the rest of the week so important? What are the theological implications of such division between ordinary and extraordinary time?