It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest: this special day is likened to the regularly observed Sabbath. Good News Translation attempts to convey the meaning with “a special day of rest,” but others have proposed to make the comparison more explicit, saying “this shall be a rest day like the Sabbath.” The expression sabbath of solemn rest is literally “sabbath of sabbathing,” with the two words having the same root. Some versions see this as a kind of superlative indicating “complete rest” (New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, An American Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, and Moffatt).

Afflict yourselves: see verse 27 and 16.29.

From evening to evening: in the Old Testament the day begins at sunset (compare Gen 1.5). Notice that Good News Translation has radically restructured this verse and reduced some of the repetition to make it sound more natural in English.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .