Leviticus 23:28
in Leviticus 23On this day you are not to do any work, for it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And ye shall do no manner of work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Jehovah your God.
KJV
And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.
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This verse in Leviticus 23
Commentary
7 notes on this verseYe shall do no work in that same day,.... No more than on the weekly sabbath: for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God: See Gill on Lev 16:30; Aben Ezra's note is,"for you only,''that is, for the Israelites, and not the Gentiles; but the atonement of Christ, the antitype of this, was not for the sins of the Jews only, but for the sins of the whole world, of all his people in it, 1Jn 2:2.
This site's exposition
Also on the tenth day of this seventh month
on Leviticus 23:27-28
Chapter 16 arrives in the calendar as a date. Nothing here repeats the goats, the blood or the linen garments, and what the people are handed instead is a day to afflict their souls and an order to do no work. The one solemnity in the list that is a fast sits among feasts and is called by the same word, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown render as an appointed time or season of assembling rather than a celebration.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Whatsoever soul - Either of the Jewish nation, or religion. Hereby God would signify the absolute necessity which every man had of repentance and forgiveness of sin, and the desperate condition of all impenitent persons.
The reason is: For it is a day of atonement. Note, The humbling of our souls for sin, and the making of our peace with God, is work that requires the whole man, and the closest application of mind imaginable, and all little enough. He that would do the work of a day of atonement in its day, as it should be done, had need lay aside the thoughts of every thing else.
Every soul must be afflicted, because every soul was polluted, and guilty before God; while none have fulfilled the law of innocency none are exempt from the law of repentance, besides that every man must sigh and cry for the abominations of the land.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
there shall be a day of atonement . . . and ye shall afflict your souls--an unusual festival, at which the sins of the whole year were expiated. It is here only stated that the severest penalty was incurred by the violation of this day.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A day of atonement - See the note on Lev 16:2, etc., where this subject is largely explained.
How the passage was read
On Leviticus 23:1-44On Leviticus 23:1-44
The year Israel keeps
This chapter is the calendar of the whole Jewish year, and every feast in it is still on the calendar today. In order: the weekly Sabbath; Passover and Unleavened Bread in spring (now kept as the seder meal and a week without leavened bread); Firstfruits (the first sheaf of barley waved before God); Weeks, in Hebrew Shavuot, fifty days later (Christians know the Greek name: Pentecost); then in autumn the Day of Trumpets (now Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, announced by the ram's-horn trumpet called a shofar), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, the great fast), and Tabernacles, in Hebrew Sukkot, when families still build and eat in leafy backyard booths for a week, remembering the wilderness.
So when the New Testament says Jesus or Paul went up for “the feast,” it means one of these appointments: the same calendar, kept for over three thousand years.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: The Feasts of the LORD (this site's study of all seven) · Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 (the four new years)
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְכָל־ | vekhol | and any | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| מְלָאכָה֙ | melakhah | work | H4399 → | 167 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תַעֲשׂ֔וּ | taasu | you will do | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| בְּעֶ֖צֶם | beetzem | on [the] substance of | H6106 → | 126 times |
| הַיּ֣וֹם | haiyom | the day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| הַזֶּ֑ה | hazeh | <the> this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| י֤וֹם | yom | [is] a day of | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| כִּפֻּרִים֙ | kipurim | atonement<s> | H3725 → | 8 times |
| ה֔וּא | hu' | it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| לְכַפֵּ֣ר | lekhaper | to make atonement | H3722 → | 102 times |
| עֲלֵיכֶ֔ם | ʾaleikhem | on <the> yourselves | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| לִפְנֵ֖י | lifnei | <to> before | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| יְהוָ֥ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ | ʾeloheikhem | God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
וְכָל־and any
vekholH3605 →5413 times
מְלָאכָה֙work
melakhahH4399 →167 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תַעֲשׂ֔וּyou will do
taasuH6213 →2628 times
בְּעֶ֖צֶםon [the] substance of
beetzemH6106 →126 times
הַיּ֣וֹםthe day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
הַזֶּ֑ה<the> this
hazehH2088 →1180 times
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
י֤וֹם[is] a day of
yomH3117 →2304 times
כִּפֻּרִים֙atonement<s>
kipurimH3725 →8 times
ה֔וּאit
hu'H1931 →1879 times
לְכַפֵּ֣רto make atonement
lekhaperH3722 →102 times
עֲלֵיכֶ֔םon <the> yourselves
ʾaleikhemH5921 →5755 times
לִפְנֵ֖י<to> before
lifneiH6440 →2123 times
יְהוָ֥הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃God your
ʾeloheikhemH430 →2601 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hebrews 10:10And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
it leads to
- Hebrews 10:14
because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Hebrews 10:12
But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.
- 1 Corinthians 6:11
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
- Hebrews 10:14
Through
1 John 2:2He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
it leads to
- 1 John 4:14
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
- 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
- John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
- 1 John 4:10
And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- 1 Peter 2:24
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- 1 John 4:14
Where this verse is studied
About Leviticus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.