You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day.’”
- KJV Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.
- BSB Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”
- NKJV You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”
- NLT You must not even light a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath.”
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
No fire is to be kindled in Israelite homes on the Sabbath.
Overview
This specific application of Sabbath rest forbade even ordinary domestic labor like kindling fires, underscoring how complete the day's rest was to be. It taught Israel to depend on God rather than constant toil. The command highlights the seriousness of honoring God's appointed rest, ultimately fulfilled in the rest Christ gives His people (Matthew 11:28).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Exod 16:23He said to them, “This is that which Yahweh has spoken, ‘Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.’”
- Exod 12:16In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no kind of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.
- Num 15:32–36While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
- Isa 58:13“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
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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 35:3 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.