Deuteronomy 16:8

8 For six days you shall continue to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the Lord your God, when you shall do no 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 But at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name, only there shall you offer the passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, the time of day when you departed from Egypt.
7 You shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose; the next morning you may go back to your tents.
8 For six days you shall continue to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the Lord your God, when you shall do no work.
9 You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.
10 Then you shall keep the festival of weeks to the Lord your God, contributing a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the Lord your God.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.