Day 7: Sabbath (2:1-3)

Day 7: Sabbath (2:1-3)

¹ The heavens and the earth and all their host were complete. ² Elohim finished the work he had done on the seventh day, and he ceased on the seventh day from all the work he had done. ³ Elohim blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he ceased from all his work of creating he had done. (2:1-3)

    These last verses complete the week of creation. God had finished and he pronounced the whole "very good." This implies that creation was perfect, no more work was needed, no tinkering necessary to fine-tune the product, so God could cease working. The Hebrew verb for "cease" is shabbat, from which comes the word for the Jewish weekly holy day, Sabbath.

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Earth from space By the seventh day the earth was perfect, so God rested. Courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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    The seventh day was given special status. It was the only day God blessed. A priestly concern surfaces here. In the very story of creation the writers find hard and fast warrant for the holiness of the Sabbath day, and the week as the structure of life before God. The Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 cites the divine week of creation as the reason for keeping the Sabbath day holy.