Leviticus 23:3

Summary

Leviticus 23:3 sets out a weekly rhythm: work is to be carried out during six days, but the seventh day is designated a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy assembly, on which no work is to be done. The verse closes by attaching this observance to Yehovah and extending it to "all your dwelling places."

Key words

• te'aSeh ("it will be done", H6213A) — niphal imperfect, passive/impersonal form: the six days of labor are described without naming an agent, i.e. "work is done" rather than "you shall do work."
• ta'aSu ("you will do", H6213A) — same root as above but qal imperfect, second person masculine plural: on the seventh day the prohibition is addressed directly and actively to "you all," in contrast to the impersonal phrasing of the six workdays.
• shaBat shabbaTon ("a sabbath of / sabbath-observance", H7676 + H7677) — a construct chain doubling the same root (sh-b-t), producing an intensive expression rather than a simple noun.
• mikra' Qodesh ("a convocation of / holiness", H4744 + H6944G) — another construct pair, literally "a calling-together of holiness," commonly rendered "holy convocation."
• hi' ("it/she", H1931) — feminine personal pronoun agreeing with the feminine noun shabbat, functioning as a copula: "it [the seventh day] is a sabbath."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on a contrast between two verb forms sharing the same root '-s-h ("to do/make"). For the six workdays, the niphal te'aSeh ("it will be done", H6213A) leaves the subject unstated — the text describes labor happening rather than commanding a specific agent. For the seventh day, the qal ta'aSu ("you will do", H6213A) switches to a direct second-person plural address, making the prohibition explicit and personal: "you [plural] shall not do any melakhah ('work', H4399)."

The seventh day is further defined by two stacked construct chains: shaBat shabbaTon (H7676/H7677), which repeats the root sh-b-t for emphasis, and mikra' Qodesh (H4744/H6944G), "a convocation of holiness." These chains pile descriptive nouns onto the day rather than using adjectives, a common feature of construct-based intensification in Biblical Hebrew. The clause shabbat hi' laYHWH uses the feminine pronoun hi' (H1931) to link back grammatically to the feminine noun shabbat, forming an equational sentence: "it is a sabbath belonging/directed to Yehovah." The final phrase be-khol moshevoteikhem ("in all your dwelling places") extends the scope of the observance geographically, using a construct plural noun with a second-person plural suffix.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the first clause with an active verb, ποιήσεις ἔργα ("you will do works"), plural erga, differing from the Hebrew's impersonal passive te'aSeh and singular melakhah. The LXX also translates mikra' qodesh as κλητὴ ἁγία ("called, holy"), two adjectives rather than the Hebrew's construct-noun chain. The Vulgate inserts an explanatory clause, "quia sabbati requies est" ("because it is the rest of the sabbath"), which has no direct lexical counterpart in the Hebrew construct shabbat shabbaton.