Numbers 29:35

Summary

Numbers 29:35 establishes that the eighth day of the festival period is designated as atzeret ("an assembly", H6116), a day on which no melekhet avodah ("work of servitude", H4399/H5656I) is to be performed. The verse addresses the community directly using second-person plural forms.

Key words

• ha.shemini ("the eighth", H8066) — masculine singular ordinal number with definite article, specifying which day in the sequence is meant.
• atzeret ("an assembly", H6116) — feminine singular noun, functioning as the predicate naming what this day is rather than merely describing an activity on it.
• tihyeh ("it will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, third person feminine singular, agreeing with the feminine noun atzeret; the imperfect aspect conveys an ongoing or repeated future obligation.
• melekhet ("work of", H4399) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be joined to the following noun to form the phrase "work of servitude."
• ta'asu ("you will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect, second person masculine plural, addressing the community as a collective group responsible for compliance.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two independent clauses. The first clause — bayom hashemini atzeret tihyeh lakhem — places the temporal phrase "on the eighth day" at the front, followed by the predicate noun atzeret ("an assembly") and the verb tihyeh ("it will be"), which agrees grammatically with atzeret in gender (feminine). The phrase lakhem ("to you") uses a preposition with pronominal suffix, indicating the assembly belongs to or is incumbent upon the addressed group. This construction states that the day itself becomes or constitutes an assembly, rather than simply hosting one.

The second clause — kol-melekhet avodah lo ta'asu — begins with kol ("any") in construct form, tightly bound to melekhet ("work of"), which is itself in construct with avodah ("servitude"). This construct chain produces a specific category: "work of servitude," distinct from general labor. The negation lo precedes the qal imperfect ta'asu, addressed to the second-person masculine plural, making the prohibition a direct, ongoing command to the assembled community.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders atzeret (H6116) as εζοδιον ("exodion" / a going-out or concluding rite), differing from the Hebrew's more neutral "assembly." The Vulgate translates the same term as celeberrimus ("most celebrated" or "highly attended"), emphasizing festivity rather than the structural sense of gathering. The Hebrew melekhet avodah ("work of servitude") appears in the LXX as ἔργον λατρευτόν ("work pertaining to service/cult"), and in the Vulgate as opus servile ("servile work"), both broadly parallel but drawing on different semantic ranges of "servitude" versus "cultic labor."