What Does Leviticus 23:31 Mean in the King James?

Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

Leviticus 23:31 · KJV

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 word translated “statute” carries the image of an engraved boundary, so the no-work command is written into every age and every dwelling.

THE MEANING

The command sets work down, and its boundary carries through the ages, across generations, and into every dwelling. Its reach is part of ordinary life wherever you settle.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a sacred limit belongs only to one place or one generation: this command reaches every dwelling across the generations.

THE ROOT

חֻקַּת

ḥuqqat

GROWS FROM

חקק

ḥ-q-q

To cut in, inscribe, or engrave; by extension, to prescribe.

The word for “statute” is related to ⁨חָקַק⁩ (ḥaqaq), to inscribe or engrave: the command is pictured as a fixed mark in communal life. Its reach through the ages and into every dwelling makes that boundary part of daily life.

ALSO GROWS

ḥoq: A statute, decree, or prescribed boundary.

חֹק

This is the noun behind the verse’s “statute,” naming the boundary that continues across generations.

mechoqeq: A ruler or lawgiver; one who decrees.

מְחֹקֵק

This branch shows the root’s movement from an inscribed rule to the authority that sets it.

מֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם

moshvoteikhem

GROWS FROM

ישב

y-sh-b

To sit, settle, or dwell.

“Your dwellings” comes from ⁨יָשַׁב⁩ (yashav), to sit, settle, or dwell. The boundary reaches the places where life is settled and lived, rather than remaining in one designated location.

ALSO GROWS

yashav: To sit, settle, or dwell.

יָשַׁב

The verb makes the scope concrete: the command applies wherever you settle.

moshav: A dwelling, settlement, or seat.

מוֹשָׁב

This noun shares the root of “dwellings,” linking the command to the places people inhabit.

THE PATTERN

The cessation of work follows a creation pattern and extends into household life as a boundary shared by all.

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.

Genesis 2:2 · KJVGod’s rest from work places cessation within the pattern of creation that this command carries into lived time.

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, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Exodus 20:10 · KJVThe prohibition reaches household members, servants, animals, and the stranger within the gates, making the boundary communal.

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Mark 2:27 · KJVJesus names the Sabbath as made for humankind, showing its place in human life.

THE THREAD

And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:

Leviticus 16:29 · KJV

This verse repeats ⁨חֻקַּת⁩ (ḥuqqat, statute) and ⁨עוֹלָם⁩ (ʿolam, age), tying the same enduring boundary to the day’s observance. It also explicitly includes the resident stranger, showing that the no-work boundary reaches everyone living among you.

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