Dr. David Cohen-Zemach
What Does the Seventh Day Symbolize?
I tried to answer the above question in a talk at the 19th World Congress of Jewish Studies on August 4th, 2025. In this essay I shall present a concise summary of the points presented in that talk.
The liturgical unit under discussion is Genesis 2:1-4a. This unit concludes the first creation story and ostensibly frames the seventh day as the day that God finished creating the universe, thus sanctifying the day. The common reading of the phrases “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made…” (All Biblical quotations in this article use the King James translation) is as a description of the conclusion of the act of creation, which went on for six days. The main verse in need of elucidation, from which my final conclusion is derived, is “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (Genesis 2:1).
I shall start from the bottom line: in my mind, this passage does not describe the completion of the world’s creation, but rather the extermination of the hosts of the heavens and the earth. Indeed, on its face this interpretation is subversive and revolutionary and runs counter to all accepted interpretations in exegetical tradition and critical studies of the Bible. Nonetheless, I am convinced that it is the correct interpretation from both a linguistic-syntactical standpoint and a conceptual standpoint. ( For further discussion of this issue, see: Cohen-Zemach, David. War and Peace in Isaiah’s Vision and in the Stories of the Creation. Hebrew edition: Tel Aviv: Resling, 2019, p. 136 onwards).
The linguistic proof: In the Hebrew Bible, the root kaf-lamed-heh (כ-ל-ה) in the binyan (verb construction) piel has two main definitions:To complete an action, a deed, an occurrence, or so forth.
To annihilate and destroy a thing or object.
Genesis 2:2 is rendered accordingly: “And on the seventh day God ended his work.” But Genesis 2:1, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them,” has no indication of any work or action. What, then, did God finish? It is reasonable to assert that an action, deed, task, or the likes may be finished, but can one finish an object? Indeed, the construction or destruction of a thing may be finished, but one cannot finish an object itself. Thus, from a syntactical standpoint, it cannot be said that God ‘finished’ the hosts of the heavens and the earth; rather, God destroyed or triumphed over these hosts. This is to say, the verse does not discuss the completion of an action, but rather destruction or defeat being wrought unto another party. If we might consider to the militant and idolatrous connotation of the verse’s mention of the hosts of the heavens and the earth, the resulting impression is of God’s triumph over these mythical forces hinted at in the creation story of Genesis 1.
And yet intuition and impressions from scripture are not sufficient tools, which is why I have thoroughly examined all scriptural instances of the active form of the verb: the root kaf-lamed-heh in the binyan piel. The concordance indicates that the root alludes to the completion of an action only when it is adjoined to an action, an occurrence, or a verb – never to a noun that represents a concrete object. Thus we may interpret Genesis 2:2 as, indeed, “God ended his work,” the work being the labor of creation. Further examples of the completion of an action or the conclusion of an occurrence using the same verb:And the Lord went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham… (Genesis 18:33)
… until they have ended all my harvest. (Ruth 2:21)
In these examples, “left communing” (in the Hebrew, kilah ledaber) means “finished the act of talking,” while “ended all my harvest” (kilu et kol hakatzir) means “finished the act of harvest.” In any case, in order to indicate a conclusion, the root kaf-lamed-heh joins a certain action to describe a dynamic scenario that develops over time.
When the root kaf-lamed-heh describes destruction or annihilation, by contrast, it is consistently attached to a noun that describes a concrete object or party, rather than an action. For example:… and the famine shall consume the land. (Genesis 41:30) And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise… (II Samuel 22:39)
In these examples we may see famine consuming (in the Hebrew, vekilah et haaretz)—that is, causing the loss and annihilation of—the land, as well as David stating that he had vanquished, crushed, and destroyed his enemies (veakalem). There is no indication of any verb or action joining the root of the verb (כ-ל-ה).
Let us then consider, once again, the verse under discussion: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” Here, in the original Hebrew, the root kaf-lamed-heh appears as a passive verb, of the binyan pual – the passive inverse of piel. This construction appears only twice throughout the Hebrew Bible: apart from the present verse, it appears in Psalms 72:20: “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended” (in the Hebrew, kalu). Conforming with the previously established principle, ‘prayers’ being a noun (gerund) that refers to an action taking place over time rather than a concrete object, indeed the apt form is ended. In Genesis 2:2, however, the verb is applied not to an action but to a concrete party, and thus we may not speak of mere ‘ending,’ but rather of annihilation and destruction. To conclude this point: the ending, or kilui, of an action, is a completion; the kilui of an object is destruction, loss, annihilation.
The conceptual proof: The first creation story, contained mostly in Genesis 1, hints at the acknowledgment of Mesopotamian mythology. On the one hand, an effort is made to reject this mythology and refute its existence, yet on the other hand the author includes hints at mythological narrative, and an attempt is made to prop up the Israelite monotheistic view in this narrative’s stead. As early as the very start of the story, in Genesis 1:2, the author mentions the terms “void” and “without form” (in the Hebrew, tohu va-bohu), and “darkness upon the face of the deep” (khoshekh al pnei tehom), hinting at primordial forces of darkness existing prior to Creation. Later, in verses 14-19, the author describes the creation of the lights in the firmament and stress that they had only the power to provide light and to set day apart from night and light apart from darkness, meaning they have no power over man – a hint at the idolatrous belief regarding the hosts of the sky ruling over humanity. In verse 21, the author mentions the creation of “great whales” (hataninim hagdolim), whose connection to Mesopotamian mythology is well established. Therefore, one might expect that in the conclusion of the creation narrative (Genesis 2:1-4a) the Biblical author might reiterate that by creating the universe the God of Creation triumphed over the primordial forces of darkness. And indeed this is achieved with the striking phrase “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them,” a phrase that is warranted in light of the first chapter’s allusions to the hosts of both heavens and earth. The primordial dark forces were active in both realms: the hosts of the heavens are alluded to in the description of the creation of the heavenly lights (Genesis 1:14-19), the hosts of the earth in the description of the creation of the great whales (verse 21), and likely in the phrase “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” in verse 2 as well. The God of Creation combated these hosts and brought about their annihilation, then created an ideal world where good overtakes evil and light overtakes darkness.
Below are several of the holy scriptures’ hints at widespread belief in the existence and activity of the hosts of the heavens and the earth:In the proscription of idol worship in the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4, recurs in Deuteronomy 5:8).
In the more detailed proscription in Deuteronomy 4:16-19: 16 “Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, 18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: 19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.” Verse 16 serves as a general statement. Verses 17-18 represent the hosts of the earth (remember that in the first creation story the fowls were created from the water as well and so belong to the hosts of the earth – see Genesis 1:20-23), while verse 19 represents the hosts of the heavens.
In the ancient poetry in Judges 5:20-21, where it is written: ““They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought… [= the hosts of the heavens] The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon [= the hosts of the earth]”. Here the hosts of the heavens and the hosts of the earth operate under God’s command. (See, Judges 5:4-5).
The implied defeat of the heavens and the earth by God in Isaiah 51:6: “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment…”) Paul, Shalom M. Isaiah, Mikra LeIsrael, Vol. 2. Hebrew Edition: Am Oved and Magnes, p. 326). One might note that the verb tivleh (“wax old”), the root being beit-lamed-heh (ב-ל-ה), may be replaced with the Hebrew verb tikleh, from the root kaf-lamed-heh (כ-ל-ה), and thus the verb might hint at the defeat of the hosts of the earth. (See: Held, Moshe. “Studies in Biblical Lexicography in the Light of Akkadian.” Hebrew: Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies, Vol. 16, 1982, pp. 77-80; Kutscher, Eduard Yechezkel. Language and Linguistic Background of the Isaiah Scroll. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1959, pp. 187-188).
God’s prophesied struggle against the hosts of the heavens and the earth as he had done once before during the Creation:“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.” (Isaiah 24:21)
“Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies. […] And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down […] For my sword shall be bathed in heaven […] and their land shall be soaked with blood…” (Isaiah 34:1-8)The midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 10) acknowledges this interpretation of the verb vayekulu in Genesis 2:1: “So long as the world was void and without form, the labor of heaven and earth was absent; as the void had been removed from the world, the labor of heaven and earth becomes manifest. As it is written, ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished [vayekulu], and all the host of them.’ Vayekulu, meaning struck, meaning annihilated.” (With thanks to Shlomi Zemach for bringing this midrash to my attention).
The unit that concludes the first creation narrative ends with the passage, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created,” which is to say, the heavens and the earth have generations, in the sense of progeny. This idea corresponds with Mesopotamian narrative (such as the Enūma Eliš) as well as with the Biblical creation narrative which states that the earth “brings forth” (in the Hebrew, totze - תוצא) vegetation and animals (in Genesis 1:12, “And the earth brought forth”; in 1:24, “Let the earth bring forth”). These yields of the earth are God’s creations after God defeated the primordial and hostile “host of the earth” – a notion evidently hinted at in the phrase “the earth, and all that is therein” (in the Hebrew, tevel vekol tze’etza’eyah – the earth and all its offspring) in the aforementioned Isaiah 34:1.
Thus we can see that in Genesis’ creation narrative God vanquished the hosts of the heavens and the earth and drove them to submission before going on to create the world. The seventh day thus symbolizes God’s triumph over, and elimination of, the primordial forces of darkness, following which God became king of the whole universe. And thus says the author of Psalms (47:8): “God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.” See also Psalms 93:1, 96:10, 97:1, and 99:1.
In order to symbolize this triumph, God created a ‘sanctum’ for himself, this sanctum being the seventh day: a sanctum manifest not in place but in time. This sanctum also symbolizes the peace that came after the war against the forces of evil. For the Israelites, the seventh day became the sabbath, the symbol for this grandiose occurrence. This occurrence, the coronation of God, preceded the construction of the physical Temple in Jerusalem, and served as a preparation for the construction of a sanctum wherein God might one day sit as king of the world. And, indeed, in his wondrous vision in the Temple in Jersualem, Isaiah exclaims: “for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:3).
In my humble opinion, Job 25:2 concisely summarizes the process of the God of Creation’s triumph over the forces of darkness, followed by the peace signified by the seventh day: “Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.” The first clause of the verse describes the power of God, striking terror in his enemies, while the second clause states the final triumph that brought about peace in the heavens.
Notably, on Shabbat evenings the segment “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished…” is read during the Maariv prayer and immediately followed by: “Holy God [or, on Shabbat Teshuva, ‘Holy King’] who has no peers… before Him we shall labor in awe and fear… Master of Peace…” According to tradition, the world was created on Rosh HaShana, and for that reason around that date we say, “Holy King,” for it was on that occasion that God became king of the universe. On the joyful occasion of sanctifying the day of rest, the statement “Before Him we shall labor in awe and fear” may seem curious, but in light of the explanation above it appears to be a hint at the fear that God struck in the hearts of his opponents who opposed the creation of the world. By concluding with “Master of Peace,” we reaffirm the seventh day—the sabbath—as a day of peace granted by God unto humankind.
In light of these points, the commonplace greeting “shabbat shalom” takes on deeper meaning.
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה
תודה רבה על תגובתך. היא תפורסם אחרי אישורה.