Deuteronomy 5:14

Hebrew Bible

12 “Be careful to observe the Sabbath day just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 You are to work and do all your tasks in six days, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the resident foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest. 15 Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. 16 “Honor your father and your mother just as the Lord your God has commanded you to do, so that your days may be extended and that it may go well with you in the land that he is about to give you.

Nehemiah 13:15

Hebrew Bible

13 I gave instructions that Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a certain Levite named Pedaiah be put in charge of the storerooms, and that Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, be their assistant, for they were regarded as trustworthy. It was then their responsibility to oversee the distribution to their colleagues. 14 Please remember me for this, O my God, and do not wipe out the kindness that I have done for the temple of my God and for its services! 15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions. 16 The people from Tyre who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah—and in Jerusalem, of all places! 17 So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?

 Notes and References

"... In addition to prohibiting the collection of manna on the Sabbath, biblical sources also ban the kindling of fire, associated primarily with cooking (Exodus 35:1–3; see also Exodus 12:16); berate residents of Jerusalem for selling and purchasing food on the Sabbath rather than abstaining from commercial activities (Nehemiah 13:15–22); and describe the preparation of the tabernacle’s showbreads on the Sabbath (Leviticus 24:5–9; 1 Chronicles 9:32). Prohibitions against cooking and food preparation on the Sabbath also appear in the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including Jubilees 2:17–21, 2:29, 50:9, CD- A X.22- XI.2, CD XI.7–11, and they feature in the gospel narratives (Mark 2:23–3:6; Matthew 12:1–14; Luke 6:1–11). The custom of eating elaborate meals on the Sabbath as part of Sabbath observance developed later than the biblical prohibitions against cooking and food collection but was already a widespread practice by the end of the first century CE. The earliest attestations to the celebration of the Sabbath through festive meals are Jubilees 2:17–21, 50:9 and Josephus, Life 54 (Isaiah 58:13–14 encourages the Sabbath to be marked as a time of delight but does not mention food) ..."

Kattan Gribetz, Sarit Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism (p. 286) Princeton University Press, 2020

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