What Does Exodus 23:12 Mean in the King James?
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
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
In Hebrew, this pause is not one flat kind of rest: you cease, the animals settle, and the servant’s child and stranger are renewed.
THE MEANING
Your work stops for one day, giving the animals a place to settle and the servant’s child and the stranger room to recover. The verse makes shared relief part of the shape of a working life, reaching even those who do not set their own hours.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that rest belongs only to the person who owns the work dissolves here: the day reaches the ox, the donkey, the servant’s child, and the stranger.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁבֹּת
tishbot
GROWS FROM
שׁבת
sh-b-t
Cease, stop, or come to an end.
The word translated “rest” carries the action of ceasing work. The verse makes that cessation a boundary set by the one who directs the work, and its effects extend to those who depend on that direction.
ALSO GROWS
shabbat: Sabbath; a recurring cessation from work.
שַׁבָּת
The weekly Sabbath gives this stopping a shared place in time.
shabbaton: A solemn or complete rest.
שַׁבָּתוֹן
This related form shows the same root shaping an extended pause, not merely a moment of inactivity.
יָנוּחַ
yanuach
GROWS FROM
נוח
n-w-ḥ
Settle, come to rest, or remain at ease.
The animals’ rest uses a different Hebrew verb from the one describing the person’s Sabbath. The English repeats “rest,” while the Hebrew distinguishes ceasing work from settling into ease.
ALSO GROWS
menuchah: Resting place or repose.
מְנוּחָה
The animals’ rest belongs to a wider root family for a place or condition of settled ease.
manoach: A resting place.
מָנוֹחַ
This branch makes the animals’ relief concrete: the root can name a place where one can settle.
וְיִנָּפֵשׁ
veyinnaphesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
Be refreshed or recover oneself.
The verb for being refreshed shares its root consonants with nefesh, the living self. The verse describes the servant’s child and the stranger receiving renewal that reaches life itself.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul; the living self.
נֶפֶשׁ
The shared root links refreshment with the life of the person receiving it.
vayinnaphesh: Was refreshed.
וַיִּנָּפֵשׁ
This same verb form appears in Exodus 31:17, where it describes the seventh-day renewal associated with God’s rest.
THE PATTERN
Sabbath relief is a shared boundary on work, reaching every life dependent on another’s authority.
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:THE THREAD
It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.The same Hebrew root, נפש (n-p-sh), appears behind “may be refreshed” here and “was refreshed” there. The servant’s child and the stranger receive the same kind of renewal the text names alongside the seventh-day rest.
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