Deuteronomy 16:8

8 You must eat unleavened bread for six days. On the seventh day there is to be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God, and you must not do any work.

Deuteronomy 16:8 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 16:8

Six days shalt thou eat unleavened bread
In other places it is ordered to be eaten seven days, ( Exodus 12:15 Exodus 12:19 ) ( Exodus 13:6 Exodus 13:7 ) and here it is not said six only; it was to be eaten on the seventh as on the other, though that is here distinguished from the six, because of special and peculiar service assigned to it, but not because of an exemption from eating unleavened bread on it. The Jews seem to understand this of different corn of which the bread was made, and not of different sort of bread; the Targum of Jonathan is, on the first day ye shall offer the sheaf (the firstfruits of the barley harvest), and on the six days which remain ye shall begin to eat the unleavened bread of the new fruits, and so Jarchi:

and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God;
a holy convocation, devoted to religious exercises, and the people were restrained, according to the sense of the word, from all servile work, as follows:

thou shalt do no work therein;
that is, the business of their callings, their trades and manufactories; they were obliged to abstain from all kind of work excepting what was necessary for the dressing of food, and in this it differed from a sabbath; see ( Exodus 12:16 ) ( Leviticus 23:8 ) .

Deuteronomy 16:8 In-Context

6 You must only sacrifice the Passover animal at the place where the Lord your God chooses to have His name dwell. [Do this] in the evening as the sun sets at the [same] time [of day] you departed from Egypt.
7 You are to cook and eat [it] in the place the Lord your God chooses, and you are to return to your tents in the morning.
8 You must eat unleavened bread for six days. On the seventh day there is to be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God, and you must not do any work.
9 "You are to count seven weeks, counting the weeks from the time the sickle is first [put] to the standing grain.
10 You are to celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the Lord your God has blessed you.
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