# וישבת ביום השביעי‎



## JAN SHAR

In the Hebrew Bible it says ויכל אלהים ביום השביעי מלאכתו אשר עשה וישבת ביום השביעי מכל מלאכתו אשר עשה

Can the verb שבת be translated to cease instead of to rest? How could God "rest" anyway?

Thanks


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## Drink

Yes, it means to cease to do work. That is its traditional Jewish interpretation.

Worth mentioning that in Modern Hebrew, it is the word used for workers going on strike.


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## JAN SHAR

That makes sense. And if God had wanted to say that he rested on the seventh day he would have used נוח, to rest, not שבת, to cease. I don't know why (most) people insist on translating this sentence with "rested"


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## Ali Smith

The reason many people insist on translating it that way is because of the following passage:

כִּי שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ, אֶת הַיָּם וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּם, וַיָּנַח בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי - עַל כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהוָה אֶת יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת וַיְקַדְּשֵׁהוּ.

שמות כ יא

For (in) six days the LORD created the sky and the earth, the sea and everything that was in them, and then He rested on the seventh day. That's why the LORD blessed the day of the Sabbath and then He hallowed it.


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## GeriReshef

I think  וַיָּנַח can also mean left or stopped his work.
From philosophical or theological point of view it is ridiculous to think that the God rests,
but in the bible the God is very human in the way he (she?) is angry, so - who knows?


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## Ali Smith

GeriReshef said:


> I think  וַיָּנַח can also mean left or stopped his work.


Thank you! Could you tell me what dictionary gives this meaning for qal נ-ו-ח? The only meaning I’ve come across is “to rest, settle down”.


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## GeriReshef

Ali Smith said:


> Thank you! Could you tell me what dictionary gives this meaning for qal נ-ו-ח? The only meaning I’ve come across is “to rest, settle down”.


To be honest, I don't have a secret source..
When I answer here I try to contribute from my perspective as a native speaker, mainly about issues that are not covered by standard dictionaries: contexts, uses, slang, etc.. Of course, this is less practical when we deal with biblical Hebrew, because I am a native speaker today (2021) and not in ~500 bc when those texts were written. 
In contemporary Hebrew, when we use נוח in "kal" building, literally it means to rest, but many times it is used as "stop doing this" and not "sit/lay down, close your eyes, and have a rest".

Exodus 20 11 really says וינח,
while Genesis 2 sounds "more correct" (ויכל, וישבות).


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## JAN SHAR

I guess back in the seventh century Jews translated וישבת ביום השביעי as "And he (God) rested on the seventh day", because the Qur'an goes out of its way to say وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ وَمَا مَسَّنَا مِن لُّغُوبٍ. "And verily we created the skies and the earth and what is between them in six days and no type of tiredness touched us."


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