Words · Hebrew Words · Lesson 5, word 3 of 5
שַׁבָּתshabbat
The Sabbath: the seventh day, blessed and made holy.
Why this word is here. Rooted in creation (Genesis 2), commanded at Sinai, and the subject of one of Jesus' most repeated controversies; English 'Sabbath' is this word barely disguised.
What it means
From shavat, to cease or rest. The lexicon range: the Sabbath day; by extension the day of atonement ('a sabbath of sabbaths'), the sabbath year, and even a week. Shabbat is first God's own rest at creation, then a gift and command for Israel: a weekly cessation that declares the world runs by God's keeping, not human striving.
The Sabbath also carried social mercy: servants, foreigners and animals rest too (Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:14), and Isaiah calls it a delight rather than a burden (Isaiah 58:13).
Where you meet it
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
Genesis 2:3 (BSB)
'God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on that day He rested (shavat) from all His work of creating.' The pattern is older than Israel.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Exodus 20:8 (BSB)
Anchor verse 'Remember the Sabbath (shabbat) day by keeping it holy.' The fourth commandment, tied in Exodus to creation and in Deuteronomy to the exodus.
If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,
Isaiah 58:13 (BSB)
'If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath... and call the Sabbath (shabbat) a delight...' Rest as joy and justice together, in a chapter about fasting and the poor.
Why it matters
Shabbat is creation's built-in sermon: work is not God, and people are not machines. It stands behind Jesus' 'the Sabbath was made for man' and the New Testament's promise of a remaining 'Sabbath rest' for the people of God (Hebrews 4), whatever a reader's tradition concludes about the day itself.
Watch out
Present this one fairly, because churches differ. The word study alone settles less than preachers claim: shabbat names a day and a pattern of cessation, and how Christians should relate to it is argued from whole passages (Genesis 2, Exodus 20, Mark 2, Romans 14, Colossians 2, Hebrews 4), not from this lexicon entry. What the word does rule out is treating rest as laziness or the day as a mere rule: in the texts it is blessed, holy and humane.
In this lesson
- yirah (יִרְאָה): Fear of God: awe, reverence and real trembling together.
- amen (אָמֵן): 'Truly, so be it', the word that stakes you to a statement.
- tselem (צֶלֶם): An image or likeness, what humans are, of God.
- hineni (הִנְנִי (from הִנֵּה, hinneh)): 'Here I am', full availability to the one who calls.
Sources
- Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB, 1906)
- Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible / STEP Hebrew data
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