Exodus 23:12

Summary

Exodus 23:12 instructs six days of work followed by rest on the seventh day. The purpose clause specifies that this rest extends to the ox, the donkey, the son of the female slave, and the sojourner, allowing them to rest and be refreshed.

Key words

• ta'aSeh ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular; expresses the ongoing/habitual action of doing work across the six days.
• tishBot ("you will rest", H7673A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, from the root also underlying shabbat; denotes ceasing/resting on the seventh day.
• lema'an ("so that", H4616) — subordinating particle introducing a purpose clause; it links the act of resting to its intended outcome for others.
• yaNuach ("it may rest", H5117) — qal jussive, third person masculine singular; expresses the wished-for rest of the ox and donkey as a result of the human's rest.
• yinnaFesh ("he may refresh himself", H5314) — niphal imperfect with vav, third person masculine singular; the niphal (passive/reflexive) stem indicates the son of the female slave and the sojourner experience refreshment as a result, not as agents of the action.

What the text says

The verse opens with Sheshet yaMim ("six of days", H8337 construct + H3117G), a construct phrase functioning as a temporal expression for the six-day work period, followed by the qal imperfect ta'aSeh governing ma'aSeikha ("your works", H4639G construct + suffix). The seventh day is marked by the article-bearing ba-Yom ha-shevi'i ("in the day, the seventh"), paired with the qal imperfect tishBot, sharing the same root as the noun shabbat though not the noun itself here.

The second half of the verse is structured as a purpose clause introduced by lema'an ("so that", H4616), which governs two verbs: the jussive yaNuach ("it may rest") for the ox (shorkha) and donkey (chamorekha), and the niphal imperfect yinnaFesh ("he may refresh himself") for "the son of your female slave" (ben-amatkha, construct chain) and "the sojourner" (ha-Ger). The use of the niphal stem for yinnaFesh grammatically marks the human subjects as recipients of refreshment rather than initiators of the resting action, distinguishing their grammatical treatment from the ox and donkey, whose rest is expressed with the active qal jussive yaNuach.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tishBot not with a finite verb but with the noun ἀνάπαυσις ("rest"), shifting the Hebrew's verbal command into a nominal statement for the seventh day. The Vulgate uses cessabis ("you will cease") and refrigeretur ("let him be refreshed"), paralleling the Hebrew's distinction between the ox/donkey's rest and the human refreshment, though it renders yinnaFesh with a passive Latin verb rather than preserving the niphal's reflexive nuance explicitly.