Part of Speech: Verb
Strong's Number: H2308
Original Word: hadal
Usage Notes: "to cease, come to an end, desist, forbear, lack," This word is found primarily in Hebrew, including modern Hebrew. In the Hebrew Old Testament, it is found fewer than 60 times. The first occurrence of hadal is in Gen 11:8 where, after man's language was confused, "they left off building the city" (rsv).
The basic meaning of hadal is "coming to an end." Thus, Sarah's capacity for childbearing had long since "ceased" before an angel informed her that she was to have a son (Gen 18:11). The Mosaic law made provision for the poor, since they would "never cease out of the land" (Deut 15:11; Matt 26:11). In Exod 14:12, this verb is better translated "let us alone" for the literal "cease from us." alone" for the literal "cease from us."
Usage Number: 2
Strong's Number: H7673
Original Word: shabat
Usage Notes: "to rest, cease." This word occurs about 200 times throughout the Old Testament. The root also appears in Assyrian, Arabic, and Aramaic.
The verb first occurs in Gen 2:2-3: "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." The basic and most frequent meaning of shabat is shown in Gen 8:22: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." This promise became a prophetic sign of God's faithfulness: "If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever" (Jer 31:36).
We find a variety of senses: " … Even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses …" (Exod 12:15). "Neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering" (Lev 2:13 nasb, kjv, niv, "do not leave out"). Josiah "put down the idolatrous priests …" (2Kings 23:5). "I will also eliminate harmful beasts from the land" (Lev 26:6 nasb, kjv, "rid"; rsv, niv, "remove").
Usage Number: 3
Part of Speech: Noun
Strong's Number: H7676
Original Word: shabbat
Usage Notes: "the sabbath." The verb shabat is the root of shabbat: "Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor …" (Exod 23:12, nasb, kjv, "rest"). In Exod 31:15, the seventh day is called the "sabbath rest" (nasb, "a sabbath of complete rest").
A man's "rest" was to include his animals and servants (Exod 23:12): even "in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest" (Exod 34:21). "It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed" (Exod 31:17).
"… Then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord" (Lev 25:2). Six years' crops will be sown and harvested, but the seventh year "shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord …" (Lev 25:4). The feast of trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the first and eighth days of the Feast of Tabernacles are also called "a sabbath observance" or "a sabbath of complete rest" (Lev 23:24, 32, 39).
The "sabbath" was a "day of worship" (Lev 23:3) as well as a "day of rest and refreshment" for man (Exod 23:12). God "rested and was refreshed" (Exod 31:17). The "sabbath" was the covenant sign of God's lordship over the creation. by observing the "sabbath," Israel confessed that they were God's redeemed people, subject to His lordship to obey the whole of His law. They were His stewards to show mercy with kindness and liberality to all (Exod 23:12; Lev 25).
By "resting," man witnessed his trust in God to give fruit to his labor; he entered into God's "rest." Thus "rest" and the "sabbath" were eschatological in perspective, looking to the accomplishment of God's ultimate purpose through the redemption of His people, to whom the "sabbath" was a covenant sign.
The prophets rebuked Israel for their neglect of the sabbath (Isa 1:13; Jer 17:21-27; Ezek 20:12-24; Amos 8:5). They also proclaimed "sabbath" observance as a blessing in the messianic age and a sign of its fullness (Isa 56:2-4; Isa 58:13; Isa 66:23; Ezek 44:24; Ezek 45:17; Ezek 46:1, 3-4, 12). The length of the Babylonian Captivity was determined by the extent of Israel's abuse of the sabbatical year (2Chron 36:21; cf. Lev 26:34-35).
