Deuteronomy 16:8

8 Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God; thou shalt do no work in this.

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 but at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in; there thou shalt sacrifice the passover in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at the appointed time when thou came forth out of Egypt.
7 And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, and thou shalt turn in the morning and return unto thy tabernacles.
8 Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God; thou shalt do no work in this.
9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee; begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou shalt begin to put the sickle to the grain.
10 And thou shalt do the solemn feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God; out of the voluntary abundance of thy hand thou shalt give, according as the LORD thy God has blessed thee.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010