What Does Deuteronomy 16:8 Mean in the King James?
Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “solemn assembly” carries the sense of holding back, so this day is gathered to God through a shared stopping.
THE MEANING
Your seventh day is gathered to the LORD your God and held free from work. The Hebrew word for “solemn assembly” also carries the sense of restraint, joining gathering and stopping in one shape. The verse holds eating and ceasing together: nourishment continues while work stops.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a day matters only when work gets done: here, the day is shaped by gathering and stopping.
THE ROOT
עֲצֶרֶת
ʿaṣeret
GROWS FROM
עצר
to restrain, stop, or hold back
The word translated “solemn assembly” comes from a root of restraint and stopping. The day is not just a meeting added to the week: its gathering and its pause belong to the same idea.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṣar: to stop, restrain, or hold back
עָצַר
This verb makes the root’s sense of stopping visible in the assembly’s name.
maʿatsar: confinement or detention; a state of being held back
מַעְצָר
This related noun carries the root’s sense of restraint, echoing the work withheld on this day.
THE PATTERN
A sacred day is marked by shared gathering and cessation, making the pause itself part of the observance.
And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.THE THREAD
Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.“Solemn assembly” translates the same Hebrew word, עֲצֶרֶת (ʿaṣeret), meaning a gathered stopping, in both verses. Its recurrence reveals a shared shape: the assembly is paired with work being withheld.
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