Aligned sentence by sentence
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Part One · Chapter Sixty-Seven — The Sabbath and Divine Rest: Shabbat as Testimony to Creation
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Since utterance was used as a metaphor for will in everything brought into existence in the Six Days of Creation, and it was said 'and He said, and He said,' the cessation of utterance was metaphorically applied to completion and consummation. Therefore it was said, 'and He rested on the seventh day from all His work' (Gen 2:2). And the cessation — shabbat — has been used as a metaphor, as we noted in some chapters; and therefore it mentions therein 'and He rested on the seventh day and hallowed it, for on it God ceased.'
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And likewise, the cessation of speech is associated with an expression of repose; as in the verse, 'and they spoke to Nabal all these words in the name of David, and they rested' (1 Sam 25:9). This indicates that the 'repose' mentioned here, according to the use of that term for silence, is a metaphor for the completion of the matter and the ending of the purpose from it. Therefore it was said concerning the Sabbath, 'he shall rest' — a metaphor for the completion of the act and its ending.
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And in accordance with this meaning it was likewise said, 'and He rested on the seventh day' (Ex 20:11).
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As for the Sages and other interpreters, they took it in the sense of 'rest' and made it a transitive verb: 'and He was refreshed' — this refers to rest of the soul with respect to a body that has one, and he expounded it. And I find this interpretation very remote, since its apparent sense strongly implies a state of passion; and Onkelos did not interpret it according to what he went toward in the matter of 'finger.'
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It may be from a weak-first or weak-last root, and its meaning would be 'He settled' or 'He confirmed the existence,' and that that thing which exists was complete and established; for nefesh in Arabic corresponds to what we mentioned in discussing the equivocality of nefesh, and nafas is its plural in that sense.
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As for the expression wa-yinnāfesh — it is a verbal form from nefesh; and we have explained the equivocality of nefesh, and that it bears the meaning of purpose and will, as we explained in the chapter on nefesh. Its meaning in this passage would then be: that He, glorified be His mention, has brought His purpose to its final state and His will regarding the creation of this world has been consummated. And we have sketched for you the overall aim intended by the Sabbath, and the geometric difficulty of this question derives from that chapter.