The seventh day: God finishes, rests, blesses and sanctifies (Genesis 2:1–3)

Says The unit opens וַיְכֻלּוּ, “were completed,” and continues וַיְכַל, and he finished. “The seventh day” occurs three times in 2:2–3. God וַיִּשְׁבֹּת and, in 2:3, שָׁבַת, ceased, rested; he blessed the day and sanctified it (וַיְקַדֵּשׁ). This day has no evening-and-morning line, and the noun “Sabbath” does not occur. Gen 2:3 ends אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת, which God created, to make. The BSB has “by the seventh day God had finished” and “all the work of creation that He had accomplished.”

Uncertain How God “finished” on the seventh day. (1) A pluperfect, as in the BSB: the work was complete before the day began. (2) The finishing is the ceasing, blessing and sanctifying of that day. (3) The completion is the seventh day’s own act, set apart from the six days of work. No lean is taken here.

Says The printed wording at 2:2 is the MT, בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, “on the seventh day,” in both clauses. The Greek and the Samaritan have “sixth” in the first clause. See the variant note.

The note on the creation days counts this day’s lack of an evening-and-morning line, “an unclosed seventh day,” among the grounds of one view. The five views are not reopened here.

Says Hebrews 4:4 quotes the seventh-day rest, not the finishing clause. Exodus 20:11 and 31:17 ground the Sabbath in the same rest. Early readings of the blessed day are gathered in the historical note.