What is a Week According to Yahuah?
6th-day, Month 10, 26th
Friday, January16th, 2026
Shalom to my brothers and sisters in the called-out assembly of believers, who love Father Yahuah and walk in His Way with His Son Yahusha Ha’Mashiach. I pray that Yahuah has blessed you in His bounty and abundance this week.
Introduction
In this series we have looked at what a year is according to what Yahuah says in the scriptures, when it starts according to the scriptures and we also looked at what a month is. We have seen that the year uses the agricultural cycle of the aviyv and renewed moon to determine it’s start date and that a month uses the renewed moon to determine when it starts. The month is on a strict schedule that is tied directly to the moon and the year is on a strict schedule that is tied directly to the barley in the ear stage (aviyv) and that once this requirement is met, the year starts on the first renewed moon.
The week is not governed by either of these two observations, it was instituted from the beginning of the creation and is on a schedule that is set from those first seven days that has never changed:
Bere’shiyth (Genesis) 2:1-3 – “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day Elohiym ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And Elohiym blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which Elohiym created and made.”
**The seventh day was the last day of the week during creation and it has been the last day of the week every since. This is confirmed in the commandment to guard the Shabbath:
Shemoth (Exodus) 20:8-11 – “Remember the Shabbath day, to keep it set-apart. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Shabbath of Yahuah Elohayka: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days Yahuah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Yahuah blessed the Shabbath day, and hallowed it.”
**These verses command us that we are to keep the schedule of the week just a Yahuah did when He made the heaven and the earth and rested on the last day of the week, the seventh day Shabbath. This fourth commandment commands that we guard the weekly schedule just as Yahuah set it from the beginning.
From the two verses above we can see that a week is seven days and that the last day of every week is the Shabbath day of rest which occurs after six days of work are done and the weekly cycle begins anew on the day after the Shabbath.
The Hebrew definition of a week will solidify this commandment of the observance of a week and the Shabbath as being the number seven.
Definition of a Week
The only word used for week and weeks is שְׁבוּעַ (shavua) which is SHW 7620 and is a properly passive participle of SHW 7650 as a denominative of SHW 7651; literally sevened, i.e. a week (specifically of years): – week (19x), seven (1x).
1. In Bere’shiyth 29:27 it refers to an entire week of feasting.
2. Shemoth 34:22 speaks of a special feast in Yashar’el’s religious calendar.
3. In Vayiqra 12:5 the word appears with the dual suffix and signifies a period of two weeks.
SHW 7650 שָׁבַע (shava) is a primitive root; properly to be complete, but used only as a denominative from SHW 7651; to seven oneself, i.e. swear (as if by repeating a declaration seven times): – sware (167x), charge (8x), oath (7x), adjure (3x), straitly (2x).
SHW 7651 שֶׁבַע (sheva or shivah) from 7650; a primitive cardinal number; seven (as the sacred full one); also (adverb) seven times; by implication a week; by extension an indefinite number – seven 355, seventh (13x), seventeen + 6240 (6x), seventeenth (5x), sevens + 7657 (2x), seven men (1x), sevenfold (1x), seventeen + 6235 (1x), seventeen + 7657 (1x).
**From the above definitions we can see that שְׁבוּעַ (shavua) is literally a week and it’s roots are based on the number seven which is the number signifying completion. Seven, being the number of completion, signals that the week is completed in seven days, just as it was ordained by Yahuah during the creation.
Now where in the scriptures does is give the commandment to watch for a sign to begin the week or that the week starts at different times during the month or year. The week is continual cycle that has been unbroken since the beginning of our existence.
The layman’s definition of a week:
A continuous, uninterrupted cycle of seven days, established by Elohiym at Creation, independent of lunar or solar markers, culminating in the set-apart seventh-day Shabbath.
Conclusion
A week is probably the simplest form of time unit to guard because it was set from the creation of the world and has remained unchanged. From the above definitions and scriptures, a week is defined as a unit of time that consists of six unnamed days culminating on the seventh day in the weekly Shabbath Feast Day of Rest.
The cycle of the week is never commanded to be observed in any other way than the continuous, unbroken seven day cycle. If there would have bee anything else to change this uninterrupted cycle, the commandment would have been given in the Torah so the children of Yashar’el would know exactly when to guard the weekly Shabbath day of rest. This was a huge problem for them from the very beginning of their journey out of Mitsrayim to the promised land. They were continually reminded to guard the Shabbath but not one time were they commanded that there was any kind of sign that would change the day of the Shabbath to being any other day.
The lights in the firmament were never given as a way to guard the week, the week is a continual unaltered seven day measurement that was instituted by Yahuah in the beginning.
Next week we will look a what is defined as a day according to the scriptures and when it begins and when it ends. I would encourage you to read the first part of this topic found on the page What is a Biblical Day?
I pray that you all have a blessed 6th-day and remember that Yahuah’s Shabbath Feast Day of Rest is tomorrow!
Shalom,
Minister Morrow
