APPENDIX B – Some Sabbath Rules Found in the Bible

similar cubes with rules inscription on windowsill in building

Generally, the rules for Sabbath were to rest, and do no work, or do no laborious work. The following list shows some additional details as to what was expected on a Sabbath, depending on when it occurred. The weekly Sabbath always fell on the seventh day of the week. The other Sabbaths fell on specific days of the month, but the day of the week on which they fell was not specific.

Table of Contents

Proper attitude for Sabbath

• Turn from doing your own pleasure

• Call the Sabbath a delight and holy

• Honor the day

• Desist from your own ways

• Do not seek your own pleasure

• Do not speak your own word

Isaiah 58:13–14

Rules for the seventh day of the week

A Sabbath of complete rest

• Eat manna	Exodus 16:25
• Do not look for manna	Exodus 16:25, 29
• Remain at home	Exodus 16:29
• Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, do no work	Exodus 20:8–11
• Observe the Sabbath so as not to profane it	Exodus 31:14
• Rest from plowing and harvesting	Exodus 34:21
• Do not kindle a fire at home	Exodus 35:3
• Complete rest, holy convocation	Leviticus 23:3
• Set out twelve cakes of showbread with frankincense	Leviticus 24:5–9; 1 Chronicles 9:32
• Burnt offering of two male one year old lambs without defect; two-tenths ephah fine flour mixed with oil; drink offering	Numbers 28:9–10
• Remember you were a slave	Deuteronomy 5:15
• Levites as gatekeepers	2 Chronicles 23:4–8; Nehemiah 13:22
• Do not buy from peoples of the land	Nehemiah 10:31
• No work, carry loads, buy or sell	Nehemiah 13:15–22

Rules for the Feast of Weeks

Fifty days after bringing in sheaf of the wave offering

Count seven weekly sabbaths

Leviticus 23:15–16; Numbers 28:26–31; Deuteronomy 16:9–12

Rules for the Feast of Trumpets

First day of seventh month (Tishri), a Sabbath rest

• Rest

• Blow trumpets as a reminder

• Holy convocation

• Do no laborious work

• Present an offering

Leviticus 23:23–25

Rules for the Day of Atonement

Tenth day of seventh month (Tishri), a Sabbath of complete rest

• Humble yourself

• No work

• Rest

• Priest should wear linen garments and make atonement; you will be clean from all your sins

Leviticus 16:29–34; 23:26–32

Rules for the Sabbatical Year

Every seventh year, a Sabbath rest

• Every seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest: do not sow or reap; man, and beast will have enough to eat

Leviticus 25:1–7; Nehemiah 10:31

Rules for the year of Jubilee^[1]

Seven Sabbaths of years – every fiftieth year

Leviticus 25:8–55

• Count off seven sabbaths of years (49 years) (verse 8)

• Sound a ram’s horn on day of atonement (verse 9)

• Consecrate fiftieth year (verse 10)

• Proclaim a release (verse 10)

• Each person to return to his own property and family (verses10, 13)

• Do not sow or reap (verse 11)

• Do not trim or reap after growth from vines (verse 11)

• Eat crops out of the field (verse 12)

• Do not wrong each other when selling property (verses 14–17)

• You shall fear your God (verse 17)

• Observe God’s statutes and judgments for security (verses 18–22)

• Redemption of land and houses (verses 23–34)

• Poor countrymen to be sustained (verse 35)

• Poor countrymen should not be charged interest (verses 36–38)

• Poor countrymen working for you should be set free (verses 39–46)

• Poor countrymen redeemed from strangers and sojourners (verses 47–53)

• ‘Even if [the poor countryman] is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. ‘For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God (verses 54–55)

FOOTNOTES

The Hebrew word yobel (H3104) (385c) is from the Hebrew word yabal (H2986, “to flow; bring forth, especially with pomp); a ram, ram’s horn, a wind instrument: – jubilee (Foundation, NASEC). ↑

APPENDIX B – Some Sabbath Rules Found in the Bible

RBGDev 82–0–113

23-Jun-21, 13:36