[994] See the noteworthy Yoruban rest day, the first day of the five-day week (A. B. Ellis, Yoruba).
[995] For the literature on the sabbath see Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyklopädie; Jastrow, in American Journal of Theology for 1898; Cheyne, Encyclopædia Biblica; Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible; Jewish Encyclopedia; F. Bohn, Der Sabbat im Alten Testament; Benzinger, Hebräische Archäologie; Nowack, Hebräsche Archäologie; C. H. Toy, "The Earliest Form of the Sabbath," in Journal of Biblical Literature for 1899 (in which, so far as appears, the view that the Hebrew sabbath is a taboo day is stated for the first time).
[996] Any taboo day might be the occasion of placative ceremonies; but this is not a distinctive feature of the day.
[997] T. G. Pinches, in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, xxvi, 51 ff.; Zimmern, in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, lviii, 199 ff., 458 ff.; J. Meinhold, Sabbat und Woche im Alten Testament. There is no good reason to doubt that this Babylonian term is formally identical with Hebrew shabat.
[998] 2 Kings iv, 23; Amos viii, 5; Isa. i, 13.
[999] Exod. xxiii, 6.
[1000] Deut. v, 12 ff.; Exod. xx, 8 ff.; the term 'holy' here means set apart ritually, that is, taboo.
[1001] Ezek. xx, 12 f., 16, 20 f., 24; Isa. lviii, 13 f.; cf. article "Sabbath" in Jewish Encyclopedia.
[1002] The Hebrew stem shabat means 'to cease,' a signification that accords well with the character of a taboo day. But this sense has not been certainly found for the Babylonian stem, and the original force of the term sabbath may be left undecided.
[1003] Exod. xxiii, 12.