Deuteronomy 16:8

8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day [there shall be] an assembly for Yahweh your God; you shall not do 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 only at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, to let his name dwell there; you shall offer the Passover sacrifice {in the evening at sunset}, [at the] designated time of your going out from Egypt.
7 And you shall cook, and you shall eat [it] at the place that Yahweh your God will choose; and you may turn in the morning and go to your tents.
8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day [there shall be] an assembly for Yahweh your God; you shall not do work.
9 "You shall count [off] seven weeks for you; {from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain} you shall begin to count seven weeks.
10 And [then] you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks for Yahweh your God with the measure of the freewill offering of your hand that you shall give [just] as Yahweh your God has blessed you.
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.