“You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working, even during the seasons of plowing and harvest.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
- KJV Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
- BSB Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.
- NKJV “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
- NASB “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel must work six days and rest the seventh, even during the busiest farming seasons.
Overview
The Sabbath command is restated with special force: even plowing and harvest, when labor pressed hardest, must yield to rest. This guarded Israel from trusting their own toil rather than God's provision. The Sabbath ultimately points to the rest believers find in Christ, who invites the weary to come to Him (Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:9-10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Exod 23:12“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the alien may be refreshed.
- Exod 35:2‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of solemn rest to Yahweh: whoever does any work in it shall be put to death.
- Deut 21:4The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.
- 1 Sam 8:12He will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots.
- Luke 13:14The ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!”
- Luke 23:56They returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
- Isa 30:24The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory feed, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.
- Deut 5:12–15“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you.
- Exod 20:9–11You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
- Gen 45:6For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be no plowing and no harvest.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 34:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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