Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 23:3

"Six days shall work be done: but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of work: it is a sabbath unto Jehovah in all your dwellings." — Leviticus 23:3 (ASV)

Six days shall work be done. — Recurring every week, and being the most important as well as the oldest of all festivals, the Sabbath introduces the holy seasons. Hence, during the Second Temple it was declared that “the Sabbath is in importance equal to the whole law; he who profanes the Sabbath openly is like him who transgresses the whole law.” The hour at which it began and ended was announced by three blasts of the trumpets.

You shall do no work in it. — Better, you shall do no manner of work, as the Authorized Version renders this phrase in Leviticus 23:31 of this very chapter. (See Leviticus 16:29.) While on all other festivals servile work only was forbidden (Leviticus 23:21; Leviticus 23:25; Leviticus 23:35–36), and work connected with the preparation of the necessary food was permitted , the Sabbath and the Day of Atonement were the only days on which the Israelites were prohibited from engaging in any work whatsoever. (Leviticus 23:30; Leviticus 16:29).

Though manual labor on the Sabbath was punished with death by stoning (Exodus 35:2; Numbers 15:35–36), and though the authorities during the Second Temple multiplied and registered most minutely the things that constitute labor, yet these administrators of the Law enacted that in cases of illness and of any danger, work is permitted. They laid down the principle that “the Sabbath is delivered into your hand, but not you into the hand of the Sabbath.” Similar is the declaration of Christ (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:27–28).