What Does Leviticus 23:7 Mean?
On the first day you shall have a set-apart 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
In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.THE KEY
The holy day is not defined by rest alone: it is a summons to gather that makes ordinary labor stop.
THE MEANING
This day is set apart through two linked acts: a called gathering and the stopping of ordinary service. Its time belongs to shared presence rather than being consumed by work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that a day without ordinary work is empty: its time is filled by a set-apart gathering.
THE ROOT
מִקְרָא
miqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call, summon, or proclaim.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is miqra. Miqra comes from qara, “to call.” The gathering is a summons, so the rest is directed toward assembly rather than blank inactivity.
ALSO GROWS
qara: Call, summon, or proclaim.
קָרָא
The root gives the convocation the sense of people being called together.
qeri'ah: A calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
This related word shows how the root can describe a public act of calling or proclaiming.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart, make distinct, or consecrate.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is qodesh. Qodesh belongs to a word family that includes both what is set apart and the place set apart as a sanctuary. Here, the day and the gathering share that distinctness: sacred time takes communal form.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
It names the quality that marks the gathering as distinct from ordinary time.
miqdash: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The shared root links the gathering’s set-apart time with the idea of a set-apart place.
עֲבֹדָה
avodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
To serve or work.
“work of serving” in this verse is avodah. Avodah belongs to the root avad, which carries both service and work. The verse’s pause from labor is also a pause from ordinary service, giving the called gathering room in the day.
ALSO GROWS
avad: Serve or work.
עָבַד
This verb is the root behind avodah, tying the stopped labor to service.
eved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This related word makes the service sense of the work phrase audible.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart time is marked by the interruption of ordinary labor, making room for rest and gathering.
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.But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your sojourner who is within your gates.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.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 Hebrew pairing, miqra qodesh: a called gathering that is set apart. The repeated wording opens Leviticus’s command as part of a shared pattern in which assembly and the stopping of ordinary labor mark the day.
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