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What is the meaning of the word shabbat?
#1
The NET Bible says this:

Genesis 2:  "The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them. 2 By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. "

Note:  tn The Hebrew term שָׁבַּת (shabbat) can be translated “to rest” (“and he rested”) but it basically means “to cease.” This is not a rest from exhaustion; it is the cessation of the work of creation.

Would you agree?  Thanks.
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#2
The verb שָׁבַת shavat (not the noun שַׁבָּת shabbat) could be understood that way.
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#3
The word שׁבת can indeed mean either 'to cease' or 'to rest'. The Priestly author/redactor is known for having a relatively transcendent view of God, but not completely so (eg, God only 'sees' immediately after he has created light) so I would not completely rule out the idea that the author could have imagined that God might need rest from his work. 

Already the first word in Genesis 2,2 (כלה, piel, to bring to completion, to finish) indicates that God brought his work to completion on the seventh day, the Sabbath. So is the second part of the verse merely repeating what was already said in the first part of the verse (parallelism, finish, cease from work)? Or is it (also) adding a new element (rest)?

For me, a much more interesting question is: Did God work on the Sabbath?

The Samaritan Torah and the LXX try to fix this problem by changing the text from the seventh day to the sixth day so that the meaning of the first part of the verse and the last part of the verse clearly differ:

ויכל אלהים ביום הששי מלאכתו אשר עשה וישבת ביום השביעי מכל מלאכתו אשר עשה׃
καὶ συνετέλεσεν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἕκτῃ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ ἃ ἐποίησεν καὶ κατέπαυσεν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ ὧν ἐποίησεν.

The Qumran text is missing here, while the Targumim and the Vulgate agree with the MT.

In the Midrash Rabbah we find clever or even beautiful equivocations, eg, like a blacksmith God raised the hammer during the day and it fell during the evening. Or God completed the bridal chamber on the sixth day, but the bride entered on the Sabbath.

In my own personal midrash, I dare to suspect that even God was not able to observe the Sabbath perfectly, hence the need for mercy, even for God. 

I doubt this is an original idea. I have noted that Byron L. Sherwin, in his Faith Finding Meaning: A Theology of Judaism, p. 78, mentions that God had already broken his previous commandment not to make anything in the image of God.
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#4
I've recited that verse so many times, and I never even considered that it had anything odd in it!

וַיְכַ֤ל אֱלֹהִים֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָֽׂה׃
God completed his work that he was doing on the seventh day, and on the seventh day he ceased from all the work that he was doing.

I never even considered that it would have been cleaner if it had said בַּיּוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי, but it totally would! Thanks for pointing that out. It gives me something to think about.
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#5
Thank you, Jason. That means a lot to me.
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#6
The reason I brought this subject up is that I overheard someone tell some children that "God rested" meant that he was tired from all the creating that He needed to take a nap just like children do after they have completed a task.
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