What Does Leviticus 23:36 Mean?
For seven days you shall bring near an offering of fire to the LORD. On the eighth day there shall be a set-apart assembly for you, and you shall bring near an offering of fire to the LORD. It is a closing assembly. You shall do no work of serving in it.
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
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.THE KEY
The eighth day’s holiness takes shape as a gathering that holds ordinary labor back.
THE MEANING
The eighth day stands as a holy gathering in which an offering is brought and ordinary labor is withheld. Its distinction lives in both a shared assembly and a real pause in the work that usually fills the day.
THE ROOT
עֲצֶרֶת
ʿatzeret
GROWS FROM
עצר
To restrain, hold back, or detain.
“closing assembly” in this verse is ʿatzeret. The Hebrew name for the assembly carries the sense of something held back, and the verse immediately names the ordinary work that must be withheld. Gathering and stopping give the day its distinct shape.
ALSO GROWS
Atzeret: Solemn assembly or appointed gathering.
עֲצֶרֶת
The gathering’s name echoes the idea of holding something back, linking assembly with the day’s pause.
Atzur: Restrained or detained.
עָצוּר
This related form echoes the withholding of ordinary work that marks the assembly.
מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ
miqra-qodesh
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call, summon, proclaim, or read.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is miqra-qodesh. The English “convocation” can sound like an event label; miqra carries the sense of a calling or summoned gathering. Here sacred time is not only a date but a call to assemble.
ALSO GROWS
Miqra: Convocation, reading, or something called together.
מִקְרָא
It is the word used for the gathering, making the day’s sacred character a summons to assemble.
Qeri’ah: Calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
This related form keeps the sense of a call audible within the word for the gathering.
עֲבֹדָה
ʿavodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
To work or serve.
“work of serving” in this verse is ʿavodah. The phrase translated “servile work” draws on the language of service and labor. The day interrupts ordinary work so that its appointed assembly has a distinct form.
ALSO GROWS
Avodah: Work, labor, or service.
עֲבֹדָה
This is the word for the activity the verse suspends on the assembly day.
Eved: Servant or worker.
עֶבֶד
This related word makes the service within ordinary labor visible in the verse’s wording.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart time is marked by a pause in ordinary labor and a rest offered to people.
On the first day there will be a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day there will be a set-apart gathering for you; no work will be done in them, except what every living soul must eat. Only that may be done by you.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.Therefore a Sabbath settling remains for the people of God.THE THREAD
On the first day there will be a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day there will be a set-apart gathering for you; no work will be done in them, except what every living soul must eat. Only that may be done by you.Exodus uses the same phrase miqra-qodesh, “holy convocation,” and likewise suspends ordinary work. The repeated root makes the gathering here part of a pattern in which a sacred call is embodied by a community’s pause.
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