Genesis 1:31

Hebrew Bible

29 Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has living breath in it—I give every green plant for food.” It was so. 31 God saw all that he had made—and it was very good! There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Exodus 39:43

Hebrew Bible

41 the woven garments for serving in the sanctuary, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons to minister as priests. 42 The Israelites did all the work according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. 43 Moses inspected all the work, and they had done it just as the Lord had commanded—they had done it exactly—and Moses blessed them.

 Notes and References

"... Particularly instructive in this connection is the Ugaritic text that tells of the building of Baal’s temple and describes the burning of the fire during six days (compare Exodus 35:3) with its extinguishing on the seventh day. In this manner, the work is brought to conclusion, and Baal begins with the preparations for the dedicatory festivities (ANET 2: 134 [Ginsberg]). Similarly, there is undoubtedly significance in Buber and Rosenzweig’s previously mentioned claims, that the completion of work on the Tabernacle is described in language that generally resembles the conclusion of P’s Creation narrative. The following comparison demonstrates this similarity (Genesis 1:31, Exodus 39:43; Genesis 2:1, Exodus 39:32; Genesis 2:2, Exodus 40:33; Genesis 2:3, Exodus 39:43) ... Practically speaking, the Sabbath commandment becomes operative with the building of the Tabernacle, which according to P represents the classic Revelation of God to his people. It appears that the priesthood dramatized the conclusion of Creation by the Sabbath in the same way that the people of the Ancient Near East dramatized the Creation in their cultic dramas. The Sabbath, in fact, represented the conclusion of a cultic cycle, for on the Sabbath they changed the showbread (Leviticus 24:5–9), and the temple guards (2 Kings 11:5, 9) ..."

Weinfeld, Moshe The Place of the Law in the Religion of Ancient Israel (pp. 100-101) Brill, 2004

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