Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 23:1 - 23:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Sabbath
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
v. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. The word originally means fixed or appointed times, which the Lord had marked out, separated, distinguished from the ordinary course of daily life, and therefore found its chief application in the case of the festivals. While the Chapter contains a calendar of the festivals, its purpose is chiefly, as the restricting relative clause indicates, to mark those festivals upon which there should be solemn meetings for the purpose of worship.
v. 3. Six days shall work be done, the ordinary business of life should be done on the six days of the week, and the words are not merely a permission, but a command; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein. The Sabbath was to be distinguished not only by the fact that the Jews desisted from work, but chiefly because they assembled for the purposes of worship; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. By the last expression the convocation of the Sabbath is distinguished from that of all the annual festivals, for the Sabbath was usually celebrated at home, in the country, in town, in village, in hamlet, throughout the land, and wherever the Jews lived, while the great festivals were celebrated chiefly, if not entirely, at the places where the Lord's Sanctuary was erected.