One thing we must remember is that the road that leads to eternal life is a narrow one! YAHWEH wants us to completely obey His instructions.
Deuteronomy 5:29 (Complete Jewish Scriptures)
“Therefore you are to be careful to do as YAHWEH your ELOHIM has ordered you. You are NOT TO DEVIATE EITHER TO THE RIGHT OR THE LEFT.”
And then we read these eye-opening scriptures:
Proverbs 11:31 (Septuagint)
“If the righteous are NARROWLY SAVED, where shall the impious and the transgressor appear?”
Kefa (Peter) as a disciple of YESHUA knew this and quoted it!
1 Peter 4:18 (Complete Jewish Scriptures)
“If the righteous is BARELY DELIVERED, where will the unrighteous and transgressors end up?”
Matthew 7:13-14 (Hebrewgospels)
“YESHUA MASHIACH said unto His disciples, “Enter through the NARROW GATE, for wide is the way that leads man to destruction, and many are entering by it/into it. But the gate and the way that lead to life, it is EXCEEDINGLY NARROW; AND FEW ARE THEY WHO FIND IT.”
With that in mind let’s view the command that YAHWEH gives concerning the Shabbat so that we do not profane it.
Isaiah 58:13 (Complete Jewish Scriptures)
“If you hold back your foot on SHABBAT from pursuing YOUR OWN INTERESTS on My set-apart day; if you call Shabbat a delight; YAHWEH’s set-apart day, worth honoring; then honor it by NOT DOING YOUR USUAL THINGS OR PURSUING YOUR INTERESTS OR SPEAKING ABOUT THEM.”
Why is this so important to YAHWEH? Why doesn’t He want it treated like the other six days? Because the Shabbat day is more set-apart then all other days:
Jubilees 2:26-27
“Why do you command the children of Yisra’el to GUARD this day (The Shabbat), that they may keep it set-apart and not do any work on it, and not to DEFILE IT? IT IS MORE SET-APART THAN ALL THE OTHER DAYS. And whoever profanes it shall surely die, and whoever does any work on it shall die eternally, that the children of Yisra’el may guard this day throughout their generations, and not be removed out of the land, for it is a set-apart and a blessed day.”
YAHWEH doesn’t want His set-apart day to look like the other 6 days when we are speaking about our own interests, hobbies, and the work week. It should already be a given that work should absolutely cease on the Shabbat, so the focus is on what is considered to be acceptable speech on Shabbat. The definition of “Your interests” by Collinsdictionary.com is: the things that YOU ENJOY DOING. Synonyms: hobby, activity, pursuit, entertainment.
Isaiah 58:13 (Aramaic)
“If you turn away your foot from the Shabbat, from doing your own pleasures on my set-apart day; and call the Shabbat a delight, the set-apart of YAHWEH, HONORABLE; and SHALL HONOR IT, not doing on it your own ways, nor doing on it your own pleasure, NOR SPEAKING IDLE WORDS…”
The Complete Jewish Scriptures and the Aramaic both confirm that YAHWEH wants us to “honor” His Shabbat Day! And honor is defined by Oxford Languages as “regard with great respect” or “fulfill (an obligation) or keep (an agreement).
And idle words was mentioned in the Aramaic translation. And idle is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “lacking worth or basis”
The basis of our conversation should be focused on YAHWEH and not of our own interests or that of the world which means these words on the Shabbat lack worth! The Zadok Priest in the Damascus Document understood exactly what ELOHIM was saying!
Under the section titled “Concerning the Shabbat to observe it according to its law” is written:
“No man shall speak any VAIN OR IDLE WORD ON THE SHABBAT DAY. He shall make no loan to his companion. He shall make no decision in matters of money and gain. He shall say nothing about work or labor to be done on the morrow.”
Vain words or similar to idle words and as defined by vocabulary.com as “Vain is from Latin vanus, “empty.” And in English it ORIGINALLY meant “lacking value or effect, futile.”
And we find another witness in the Dead Sea Scrolls that confirms the intention of YAHWEH’s command.
4QHalakhah B
“No man shall revise the scroll of a book reading its script on the day of Shabbat…But they may read and study it. No man shall make PLANS WITH HIS MOUTH…on the day of Shabbat. He SHALL NOT TALK ABOUT any matter relating to work or wealth or…on the day of Shabbat. He shall speak NO WORD apart from speaking set-apart words AS PRESCRIBED and from pronouncing BLESSINGS OF ELOHIM. He may talk about eating and drinking…”
Here we find that we are to speak set-apart words as “prescribed” in Isaiah 58:13 and also that we should bless our ELOHIM on the Shabbat, which matches what is written in Jubilees.
Jubilees 2:21
“And thus He created a sign in accordance with which they should guard the Shabbat with us on the seventh day, to eat and to drink, and to BLESS HIM who has created all things, as He has blessed and set apart to Himself a peculiar people above all peoples, and that they should keep Shabbat together with us.”
And why was it written in that same scroll that we may talk about eating and drinking? That is because the Shabbat is a feast day!
Jubilees 50:9
“You shall do no work whatsoever on the Shabbat day except what you have prepared for yourselves on the sixth day, so as to eat, and drink, and rest, and keep Shabbat from all work on that day, and TO BLESS YAHWEH your ELOHIM, who has given you A DAY OF FEAST and a set-apart day, and a day of the set-apart kingdom for all Yisra’el is this day among their days forever.”
Isaiah 58:13 (Septuagint)
“If you turn away your foot from the Shabbat, so as not do your pleasures on the set-apart days and call the shabbat a delight, set-apart to YAHWEH; if you do not lift up your foot to work nor speak a word in anger out of your mouth.”
As we return to the ancient path I hope these scriptures will help us all to keep the Shabbat set-apart as YAHWEH prescribed and not profane it, by not speaking any words of anger, work, wealth, business, nor our own pleasures, etc.
As always may YAHWEH bless you in YESHUA’s Name!