Exodus 35:3

Hebrew Bible

1 Moses assembled the whole community of the Israelites and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. 2 In six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Anyone who does work on it will be put to death. 3 You must not kindle a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath day. 4 Moses spoke to the whole community of the Israelites, “This is the word that the Lord has commanded: 5 ‘Take an offering for the Lord. Let everyone who has a willing heart bring an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, bronze;

Numbers 15:35

Hebrew Bible

32 When the Israelites were in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community. 34 They put him in custody, because there was no clear instruction about what should be done to him. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; the whole community must stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

 Notes and References

"... There is a prohibition that no work may be done on the Sabbath ... Since [it] connotes the skill for and benefits of work, is a more inclusive term than, “work, labor,” the kinds of work excluded by this command are quite broad. It is amazing that nowhere does the priestly legislation have specific laws as to what kinds of work are forbidden or even any guidelines as to how much effort may be spent before it qualifies as work. This is more amazing in light of the numerous laws on the Sabbath in rabbinic writings. This fact teaches that God prefers to give his people principles to live by and let them fill in the details. This, of course, gives the law an enduring quality that allows it to be applicable to a variety of cultural contexts amidst the changing times. From the Pentateuch it is discovered that the kinds of work not permitted on the Sabbath included plowing and harvesting (Exodus 34:21), preparing food by baking and boiling (Exodus 16:23), making a fire (Exodus 35:3), and gathering of wood (Numbers 15:32–36). In Jeremiah 17:21 carrying loads was forbidden, and according to Amos 8:5 and Nehemiah 13:15–21, buying and selling were outlawed. The phrase, “in all your settlements,” means in all your homes, not just at the sanctuary (compare Exodus 35:3) ..."

Hartley, John E. Word Biblical Commentary: Leviticus (pp. 804-805) Zondervan Academic, 2018

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