What Does Leviticus 23:8 Mean?
But you shall bring near an offering of fire to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is 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
But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.THE KEY
What English calls a “convocation” is a calling: the seventh day gathers people out of ordinary service-work.
THE MEANING
Your time is shown in two movements: offerings continue across seven days, and the seventh is set apart for gathering as ordinary service-work ceases. The day’s shape includes both what is presented and what is laid down.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that devotion is measured by uninterrupted activity: this set-apart day includes stopping work.
THE ROOT
מִקְרָא
miqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
To call, summon, or proclaim.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is miqra. The word translated “convocation” comes from the root for calling. The gathering is a summons into shared attention, not simply people occupying the same place.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call or summon.
קָרָא
The verb beneath “convocation” makes the assembly a response to a call.
miqra: A convocation or reading.
מִקְרָא
The same noun can describe an assembly or a reading, linking gathering with a proclaimed call.
עֲבֹדָה
avodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
avad
To serve or work.
“work of serving” in this verse is avodah. The phrase carries the sense of service-work: the seventh day is defined partly by service being set down. The root also names a servant, so the day’s pause reaches beyond a task to the posture of serving.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To serve or work.
עָבַד
This verb is the seed behind the service-work that ceases on the seventh day.
eved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
The related noun shows how the same root can name both the act of serving and the one who serves.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
qadash
To set apart or dedicate.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is qodesh. The assembly is marked as set apart from ordinary time. The root’s branches extend that idea from a dedicated day to a dedicated place.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective describes what is distinguished for a dedicated purpose.
miqdash: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The related word carries the same setting-apart into a place devoted to sacred use.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart time is marked by gathering and the cessation of ordinary service.
Six days work shall be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of ceasing, a set-apart assembly. You shall do no work in it. It is a sabbath of the LORD in all your sitting places.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.For the one who has entered into his settling has himself also settled from his own works, as God did from his.THE THREAD
Six days work shall be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of ceasing, a set-apart assembly. You shall do no work in it. It is a sabbath of the LORD in all your sitting places.Leviticus 23:3 also calls the seventh day a holy convocation, using מִקְרָא (miqra, a summons or assembly) alongside the stopping of work. The shared root shows that gathering under a call and ceasing from service form a recurring shape of the sacred calendar.
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