Leviticus 16:31

It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(31) It shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you.—Literally, a resting day of solemn resting, a Sabbath of Sabbaths, i.e., a day of complete and perfect rest. This phrase, which occurs six times in the Bible, is only applied to weekly Sabbaths (Exodus 16:23; Exodus 31:15; Exodus 35:2; Leviticus 23:3), the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:31; Leviticus 23:32), and to the Sabbatical year, or the year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:4), but not to the other festivals.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 16:31. A sabbath — Observed as a sabbath day, by cessation from all servile works, and in diligent attendance upon God’s worship.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:15-34 Here are typified the two great gospel privileges, of the remission of sin, and access to God, both of which we owe to our Lord Jesus. See the expiation of guilt. Christ is both the Maker and the Matter of the atonement; for he is the Priest, the High Priest, that makes reconciliation for the sins of the people. And as Christ is the High Priest, so he is the Sacrifice with which atonement is made; for he is all in all in our reconciliation to God. Thus he was figured by the two goats. The slain goat was a type of Christ dying for our sins; the scape-goat a type of Christ rising again for our justification. The atonement is said to be completed by putting the sins of Israel upon the head of the goat, which was sent away into a wilderness, a land not inhabited; and the sending away of the goat represented the free and full remission of their sins. He shall bear upon him all their iniquities. Thus Christ, the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world, by taking it upon himself, Joh 1:29. The entrance into heaven, which Christ made for us, was typified by the high priest's entrance into the most holy place. See Heb 9:7. The high priest was to come out again; but our Lord Jesus ever lives, making intercession, and always appears in the presence of God for us. Here are typified the two great gospel duties of faith and repentance. By faith we put our hands upon the head of the offering; relying on Christ as the Lord our Righteousness, pleading his satisfaction, as that which alone is able to atone for our sins, and procure us a pardon. By repentance we afflict our souls; not only fasting for a time from the delights of the body, but inwardly sorrowing for sin, and living a life of self-denial, assuring ourselves, that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By the atonement we obtain rest for our souls, and all the glorious liberties of the children of God. Sinner, get the blood of Christ effectually applied to thy soul, or else thou canst never look God in the face with any comfort or acceptance. Take this blood of Christ, apply it by faith, and see how it atones with God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seventh month, on the tenth day - The month Ethanim or Tisri, as being the seventh in the Sacred year, has been called the sabbatical month. On the first day was celebrated the Feast of Trumpets Leviticus 23:24, the tenth day was the Day of Atonement, and on the fourteenth day the Feast of tabernacles commenced (Leviticus 23:24 note; Exodus 23:16).

Afflict your souls - The old term for fasting; but its meaning evidently embraces, not only abstinence from food, but that penitence and humiliation which give scope and purpose to the outward act of fasting. The Day of Atonement was the only public fast commanded by the Law of Moses. See further directions in Leviticus 23:27-32. On fasts observed in later times, see Zechariah 8:19, and margin reference.

A stranger that sojourneth among you - Rather, the foreigner who dwelleth among you. See Exodus 20:10 note. The meaning is, one of foreign blood, who dwelt with the Israelites, had abjured false gods, and had become familiarly known to his neighbors, e. g. the Kenites (Judges 4:11, etc.); the Gibeonites Joshua 9; and a considerable portion of the "mixed multitude" (compare Exodus 12:38, Exodus 12:48). As the foreigner had the blessing and protection of the Law he was bound to obey its statutes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29-34. this shall be a statute for ever unto you, that in the seventh month ye shall afflict your souls—This day of annual expiation for all the sins, irreverences, and impurities of all classes in Israel during the previous year, was to be observed as a solemn fast, in which "they were to afflict their souls"; it was reckoned a sabbath, kept as a season of "holy convocation," or, assembling for religious purposes. All persons who performed any labor were subject to the penalty of death [Ex 31:14, 15; 35:2]. It took place on the tenth day of the seventh month, corresponding to our third of October; and this chapter, together with Le 23:27-32, as containing special allusion to the observances of the day, was publicly read. The rehearsal of these passages appointing the solemn ceremonial was very appropriate, and the details of the successive parts of it (above all the spectacle of the public departure of the scapegoat under the care of its leader) must have produced salutary impressions both of sin and of duty that would not be soon effaced.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A sabbath of rest; observed as a sabbath day by cessation from all worldly and servile works, and diligent attendance upon God’s worship and service.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you,.... From all servile work, as before observed; typical of a cessation from the performance of sinful works, at least from a sinful course of life, and from a dependence on works of righteousness, when a man is brought to believe in Christ, and in the atonement which he has made, see Hebrews 4:3,

and ye shall afflict your souls by a statute for ever: as long as the ceremonial law, and its statutes and ordinances lasted, which were to be until the time of reformation; and till that time came, once a year, on the day of atonement, they were to keep a severe fast, here called an afflicting of their souls; and in this respect this day differed from the seventh day sabbath, which was rather a festival than a fast, and is what led some of the Heathen writers (z) into that this take, that the Jews fasted on the sabbath day. The time of Christ's sufferings, and of his being a sacrifice for the sins of his people, was a time of great affliction to his disciples; then it was the children of the bridegroom fasted, he being taken from them; and true humiliation for sin, and repentance of it, are occasioned and influenced by a view of a suffering Saviour, and atonement by him; and this may denote also, that such that believe in Christ, and in his atonement, must expect afflictions and troubles in this world,

(z) Martial. l. 4. Epigram. 4. Justin. e Trogo, l. 36. Suetonius in Vita Octav. Aug. c. 76.

Geneva Study Bible

It shall be a {l} sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.

(l) Or a rest which you shall keep most diligently.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

31. a sabbath of solemn rest] Heb. shabbath shabbâthôn, here and Leviticus 23:32 of the Day of Atonement; Exodus 31:15; Exodus 35:2; Leviticus 23:3 of the sabbath; Leviticus 25:4 of the sabbatical year. Shabbâthôn is used of the first day of the seventh month, Leviticus 23:24, and of the first and eighth days of Tabernacles, Leviticus 23:39. In Exodus 16:23 the order of the two Heb. words is inverted, with ref. to an ordinary sabbath, ‘a solemn rest, a holy sabbath.’

Leviticus 16:31

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

General directions for the yearly celebration of the day of atonement. - It was to be kept on the tenth day of the seventh month, as an "everlasting statute" (see at Exodus 12:14). On that day the Israelites were to "afflict their souls," i.e., to fast, according to Leviticus 23:32, from the evening of the 9th till the evening of the 10th day. Every kind of work was to be suspended as on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10), by both natives and foreigners (see Exodus 12:49), because this day was a high Sabbath (Exodus 31:15). Both fasting and sabbatical rest are enjoined again in Leviticus 23:27. and Numbers 29:7, on pain of death. The fasting commanded for this day, the only fasting prescribed in the law, is most intimately connected with the signification of the feast of atonement. If the general atonement made on this day was not to pass into a dead formal service, the people must necessarily enter in spirit into the signification of the act of expiation, prepare their souls for it with penitential feelings, and manifest this penitential state by abstinence from the ordinary enjoyments of life. To "afflict (bow, humble) the soul," by restraining the earthly appetites, which have their seat in the soul, is the early Mosaic expression for fasting (צוּם). The latter word came first of all into use in the time of the Judges (Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 7:6; cf. Psalm 35:13 : "I afflicted my soul with fasting"). "By bowing his soul the Israelite was to place himself in an inward relation to the sacrifice, whose soul was given for his soul; and by this state of mind, answering to the outward proceedings of the day, he was to appropriate the fruit of it to himself, namely, the reconciliation of his soul, which passed through the animal's death" (Baumgarten).