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Bible Dictionaries
Cease
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or A. Verbs.
Châdal (חָדַל, Strong's #2308), “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 châdal is in Gen. 11:8 where, after man’s language was confused, “they left off building the city” (RSV).The basic meaning of châdal 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.”
Shâbath (שָׁבַת, 7673), “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 shâbath 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 …” (2 Kings 23:5). “I will also eliminate harmful beasts from the land” (Lev. 26:6 NASB, KJV, “rid”; RSV, NIV, “remove”).
B. Noun.
Shabbâth (שַׁבָּת, Strong's #7676), “the sabbath.” The verb sabat is the root of shabbâth “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; 58:13; 66:23; Ezek. 44:24; 45:17; 46:1, 3-4, 12). The length of the Babylonian Captivity was determined by the extent of Israel’s abuse of the sabbatical year (2 Chron. 36:21; cf. Lev. 26:34- 35).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Cease'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/c/cease.html. 1940.
