What Does Exodus 16:23 Mean?
And he said to them, This is what the LORD has spoken. Tomorrow is the stopping of the set-apart sabbath unto the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil, and whatever remains over, set down for you to be guarded until the morning.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.THE KEY
The rest named for tomorrow begins with today’s act of setting provision down and keeping it.
THE MEANING
Rest takes shape as a real boundary: today’s provision is prepared, set aside, and kept until morning. The Sabbath is a cessation set apart to the LORD, with tomorrow’s rest already held in the care of what remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Rest means leaving every practical need unattended; here, what remains is explicitly kept through the night.
THE ROOT
שַׁבָּתוֹן
shabbaton
GROWS FROM
שבת
sh-b-t
Cease, stop, desist from activity.
“stopping” in this verse is shabbaton. The verse doubles this root in its paired terms for solemn rest and Sabbath. English can make rest sound inward and Sabbath sound calendrical; the shared root holds them together as a marked cessation.
ALSO GROWS
shabbat: Sabbath, a day of cessation
שַׁבָּת
The verse names the day with the same root that names its rest, making cessation the shape of the day.
shavat: Cease, stop
שָׁבַת
The verb uses the same root for stopping work, so rest includes the act of ending activity, not only a feeling of calm.
הַנִּיחוּ
hanniḥu
GROWS FROM
נוח
n-w-ḥ
Settle, come to rest; in a causative form, set down or leave in place.
“set down” in this verse is hanniḥu. The command rendered “lay up” comes from a root whose basic sense includes settling or coming to rest; here, its causative form means to set something down or leave it in place. That lexical echo makes the stored food part of the verse’s movement toward cessation, while the Sabbath itself is named by a different root.
ALSO GROWS
nûaḥ: Rest, settle
נוּחַ
This is the root’s basic movement; here, the remaining food is set down in place before the rest day.
menuchah: Rest, resting place
מְנוּחָה
This word shares the root and makes the link to repose explicit: the food is placed in keeping as the passage moves toward rest.
לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת
le-mishmeret
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
Watch, guard, keep.
“guarded” in this verse is le-mishmeret. The remainder is not merely stored; it is held in safekeeping through the night. This root spans watchfulness and custody, so the pause named for tomorrow is accompanied by care for what will be needed.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper, one who guards
שֹׁמֵר
The same root names a keeper, showing that the remaining provision is held under care.
mishmar: Watch, guard duty
מִשְׁמָר
This branch makes the overnight keeping sound like an active watch that preserves the provision until morning.
THE PATTERN
Rest is a set-apart cessation with a boundary that lets work stop and provision endure.
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.For the one who has entered into his settling has himself also settled from his own works, as God did from his.THE THREAD
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.Genesis uses the verb from the same Hebrew root carried here in the words for rest and Sabbath. English renders one as an action and the other as a day, while the shared root links both to ceasing from work.
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