Deuteronomy 16:8

שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תֹּאכַל מַצּוֹת וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי עֲצֶרֶת לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה מְלָאכָֽה׃ ס

✦ Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

שֵׁ֥שֶׁת יָמִ֖ים תֹּאכַ֣ל מַצּ֑וֹת וּבַיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י עֲצֶ֙רֶת֙ לַיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לֹ֥א תַעֲשֶׂ֖ה מְלָאכָֽה׃ ס

Greek (Septuagint)

ἕξ ἡμέρας φάγῃ ἄζυμα, καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἐξόδιον, ἑορτὴ κυρίῳ τῷ θεῷ σου· οὐ ποιήσεις ἐν οὐτῇ πᾶν ἔργον, πλὴν ὅσα ποιηθήσεται ψυχῇ.

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Sex diebus comedes azyma: et in die septima, quia collecta est Domini Dei tui, non facies opus.

Spanish

Durante seis días comerás panes sin levadura. El séptimo día será una asamblea solemne para Yehová tu Dios. No harás ningún trabajo.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Seis días comerás ázimos, y el séptimo día será solemnidad á Jehová tu Dios: no harás obra en él.

English

For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work. The Feast of Weeks (Numbers 28:26–31)

✦ What the text says

Summary

Deuteronomy 16:8 closes the instructions for the festival of unleavened bread, specifying a six-day period of eating matzot ("unleavened bread", H4682) followed by a seventh day marked as an 'atzeret ("assembly", H6116) dedicated to Yehovah, during which no melakhah ("work", H4399) is to be performed.

Key words

She.shet ("six", H8337) — construct form of the numeral, linking it to yamim ("days") to form "six of days."
to.Khal ("you will eat", H0398) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, expressing an ongoing or repeated obligation across the six-day period.
'a.Tze.ret ("assembly", H6116) — feminine singular noun designating a formal gathering or cessation, applied here to the seventh day.
'e.lo.Hei.kha ("your God", H0430G + H9021) — construct plural noun with pronominal suffix, forming the phrase "God of you," attached to the divine name.
ta.'a.Seh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect negated by lo' ("not", H3808), producing a prohibition against performing work.

What the text says

The verse divides into two structural halves joined by vav ("and", H9002). The first half establishes the six-day duration using the construct phrase she.shet yamim ("six of days"), governing the verb to.Khal ("you will eat") in the imperfect, which in Biblical Hebrew often conveys habitual or continuing action rather than a single event. The object of eating is matzot ("unleavened bread"), a plural feminine noun.

The second half shifts focus to "the seventh day" (ba.yom ha.shvi'i), introduced by the preposition va ("in the") plus the ordinal shvi'i ("seventh", H7637). This day is designated an 'atzeret — a noun that denotes a formal or solemn gathering — and the phrase la.Yahweh 'elohekha ("to Yehovah your God") indicates the recipient or dedicatee of that assembly, using the construct form 'elohei ("God of") with the second-person suffix -kha ("your"). The final clause repeats the negated imperfect construction lo' ta'aseh melakhah ("you will not do work"), a standard formula in the Hebrew text for prohibiting labor, built from the qal imperfect ta'aseh and the feminine noun melakhah ("work").

Differences between versions

The Septuagint (LXX) renders the seventh-day observance with two terms, ἐξόδιον ("departure/conclusion") and ἑορτή ("feast"), where the Hebrew has only the single noun 'atzeret ("assembly"). The LXX also adds a qualifying clause, "except what may be done for a soul" (πλὴν ὅσα ποιηθήσεται ψυχῇ), which has no corresponding text in the Hebrew of this verse. The Vulgate renders 'atzeret as "collecta" ("gathering/collection"), close to the Hebrew sense of assembly, and preserves the prohibition on work without the LXX's additional clause.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.