Bible Strands
Exodus 34:21
Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God delivers this command to Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai, immediately following the covenant renewal and the firstborn redemption decree. The instruction interrupts the surrounding agricultural festival regulations to establish a mandatory work-rest rhythm.
The words — The Hebrew תִּשְׁבֹּת (tish-bot) literally means "you shall rest" or "you shall cease," directly contrasting with תַּעֲבֹד (ta-avod, "you will labor"). This lexical pairing frames the seventh day as a fixed cessation rather than a flexible schedule.
The thread — The text repeats the six-day labor and seventh-day rest pattern in Exodus 23:12 and Exodus 35:2, while later surfaces in Luke 13:14 as a point of contention over permissible work. Each citation anchors the same operational boundary to the seventh day.
Why it lands — The verse requires stopping plowing and harvesting work on the seventh day regardless of agricultural urgency. It demands a reader to enforce a hard pause over economic gain without exception.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
Cross-references
- Exodus 23:12 For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your maidservant may be refreshed, as well as the foreign resident.
- Exodus 35:2 For six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on that day must be put to death.
- Luke 13:14 But the synagogue leader was indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. “There are six days for work,” he told the crowd. “So come and be healed on those days and not on the Sabbath.”
- Deuteronomy 5:12 Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.
- Deuteronomy 21:4 bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.
- 1 Samuel 8:12 He will appoint some for himself as commanders of thousands and of fifties, and others to plow his ground, to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
- Luke 23:56 Then they returned to prepare spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath, according to the commandment.
- Exodus 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
- Isaiah 30:24 The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
- Genesis 45:6 For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.