On the seventh day you shall hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.
Parallel translations
- WEB On the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work.
- KJV And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work.
- NKJV And on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work.
- NASB On the seventh day you shall have a holy assembly; you shall do no laborious work.
- NLT The seventh day of the festival will be another official day for holy assembly, and no ordinary work may be done on that day.
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
Like the first day, the seventh day of the feast was a holy convocation with no regular work, sealing the week in sacred rest.
Overview
The festival both opened and closed with a holy assembly and rest from labor, framing the whole week as set apart for God. The bracketing days of rest underscored that the feast belonged wholly to the Lord. Such God-given rest points to the deeper rest believers enter through faith in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Lev 23:8For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.’”
- Num 28:18On the first day there is to be a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.
- Exod 12:16On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals—that is all you may do.
- Exod 13:6For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.
- Num 29:35On the eighth day you are to hold a solemn assembly; you must not do any regular work.
- Num 28:26On the day of firstfruits, when you present an offering of new grain to the LORD during the Feast of Weeks, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.
- Num 29:1“On the first day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This will be a day for you to sound the trumpets.
- Lev 23:3For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a day of sacred assembly. You must not do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.
- Lev 23:21On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This is to be a permanent statute wherever you live for the generations to come.
- Lev 23:35–36On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. You must not do any regular work.
- Lev 23:25You must not do any regular work, but you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD.’”
- Num 29:12On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work, and you shall observe a feast to the LORD for seven days.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 28:25 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.