Since the verb “to say” has been figuratively used to express the will
of the Creator, and the phrase “And he said” has repeatedly been
employed in the account of all the things created in “the six days of
the beginning,” the expression “to rest” has likewise been figuratively
applied to God in reference to the Sabbath-day, on which there was no
creation; it is therefore said, “And he rested (va-yishbot) on the
seventh day” (Gen. ii. 2). For “to leave off speaking” is, in Hebrew,
likewise expressed by the same verb, as, e.g., “So these three men
ceased (va-yishbetu) to answer Job” (Job xxxii. 1); also by nuaḥ, as,
in “They spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of
David, and ceased (va-yanuḥu)” (1 Sam. xxv. 9). In my opinion,
(va-yanuḥu) means “they ceased to speak,” and waited for the answer;
for no allusion to exertion whatever having previously been mentioned,
the words, “and they rested,” in its primary signification, would have
been entirely out of place in that narrative, even if the young men who
spoke had really used some exertion. The author relates that having
delivered that whole speech, which, as you find, consisted of gentle
expressions, they were silent, that is to say, they did not add any
word or act by which the reply of Nabal could be justified; it being
the object of the entire passage to represent Nabal’s conduct as
extremely reprehensible. In that sense [viz., “to cease,” or “to leave
off”] the verb nuaḥ is used in the phrase “And he left off (va-yanaḥ)
on the seventh day.”
Our Sages, and some of the Commentators, took, however, nuaḥ in its
primary sense “to rest,” but as a transitive form (hiphil), explaining
the phrase thus: “and he gave rest to the world on the seventh day,”
i.e., no further act of creation took place on that day.
It is possible that the word va-yanaḥ is derived either from yanaḥ, a
verb of the class pe-yod, or naḥah, a verb of the class lamed-he, and
has this meaning: “he established” or “he governed” the Universe in
accordance with the properties it possessed on the seventh day; that is
to say, while on each of the six days events took place contrary to the
natural laws now in operation throughout the Universe, on the seventh
day the Universe was merely upheld and left in the condition in which
it continues to exist. Our explanation is not impaired by the fact that
the form of the word deviates from the rules of verbs of these two
classes; for there are frequent exceptions to the rules of
conjugations, and especially of the weak verbs; and any interpretation
which removes such a source of error must not be abandoned because of
certain grammatical rules. We know that we are ignorant of the sacred
language, and that grammatical rules only apply to the majority of
cases.—The same root is also found as a verb ʻayin-vav in the sense “to
place” and “to set,” as e.g., “and it shall be established and she
shall be placed (ve-hunniḥah) there upon her own base” (Zech. v. 11),
and “she suffered neither the birds of the air to settle (la-nuaḥ) on
them” (2 Sam. xxi. 10). According to my opinion, the verb has the same
signification in Hab. iii. 16, “that I might remain firm (anuaḥ) in the
day of trouble.”
The word (va-yinnafash) is a verb derived from nefesh, the homonymity
of which we have already explained (chap. xli.), namely, that it has
the signification of intention or will; (va-yinnafash) accordingly
means: “that which he desired was accomplished, and what he wished had
come into existence.”