What Does Numbers 28:25 Mean?
And on the seventh day you shall have a set-apart assembly; you shall do no serving work.
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
And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work.THE KEY
The seventh day turns cessation from labor into a summoned gathering.
THE MEANING
Your seventh day holds two movements together now: labor ceases, and a set-apart assembly is called. Rest here is shared time, shaped by people gathering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that rest is only private inactivity; the day is also set apart for a summoned assembly.
THE ROOT
מִקְרָא
miqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
To call, summon, or proclaim; in reading contexts, to read aloud.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is miqra. The gathering is named as something called into being, not merely a group that happens to meet. The same root carries both summoning and public reading, joining assembly with a voiced call.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call, summon, or proclaim.
קָרָא
This verb reveals the action inside the convocation: people are called together.
qeri'ah: A calling or a reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
The same root links a gathered assembly with words voiced for others to hear.
עֲבֹדָה
avodah
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To serve or labor.
“serving work” in this verse is avodah. The Hebrew phrase names this work through the language of service, and the same root names a servant. The day’s rest interrupts labor understood as service while the convocation gives the day a shared focus.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To serve or work.
עָבַד
This verb is the action named by the root behind the work set aside.
eved: A servant.
עֶבֶד
The shared root connects the labor being stopped with the person who serves.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To set apart or dedicate as distinct.
“set-apart assembly” in this verse is qodesh. The assembly is itself named as set apart; sacredness marks the shared time, not only a place. The same root also names the sanctuary, joining set-apart time with set-apart space.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; distinct for a dedicated purpose.
קָדוֹשׁ
The adjective describes the quality assigned to the assembly.
miqdash: A sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch shows the same root marking space as the verse marks time.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart rest interrupts ordinary labor and opens time to God and the gathered community.
And God blessed the seventh day and set it apart, for on it he had stopped from all his work which God had created and made.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.Therefore a Sabbath settling remains for the people of God.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.The same Hebrew expression מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ (miqra qodesh, “holy convocation”) appears here. Its root shows that the Sabbath’s rest is also a call into assembly.
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