"שבו איש תחתיו אל יצא איש ממקומו ביום השביעי"

Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of יהוה in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.” And יהוה said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not. But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “By evening you shall know it was יהוה who brought you out from the land of Egypt; and in the morning you shall behold the Presence of יהוה, because [God] has heard your grumblings against יהוה. For who are we that you should grumble against us? Since it is יהוה,” Moses continued, “who will give you flesh to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to the full—because יהוה has heard the grumblings you utter—what is our part? Your grumbling is against יהוה, not against us!” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole Israelite community: Advance toward יהוה, who has heard your grumbling.” And as Aaron spoke to the whole Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there, in a cloud, appeared the Presence of יהוה. יהוה spoke to Moses: “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I יהוה am your God.” In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp. When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” —for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread which יהוה has given you to eat. This is what יהוה has commanded: Each household shall gather as much as it requires to eat—an omer to a person for as many of you as there are; each household shall fetch according to those in its tent.” The Israelites did so, some gathering much, some little. But when they measured it by the omer, anyone who had gathered much had no excess, and anyone who had gathered little had no deficiency: each household had gathered as much as it needed to eat. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.” But they paid no attention to Moses; some of them left of it until morning, and it became infested with maggots and stank. And Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it every morning, as much as each one needed to eat; for when the sun grew hot, it would melt. On the sixth day they gathered double the amount of food, two omers for each; and when all the chieftains of the community came and told Moses, he said to them, “This is what יהוה meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy sabbath of יהוה. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered; and it did not turn foul, and there were no maggots in it. Then Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath of יהוה; you will not find it today on the plain. Six days you shall gather it; on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.” Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing. And יהוה said to Moses, “How long will you all refuse to obey My commandments and My teachings? Mark that it is יהוה who, having given you the sabbath, therefore gives you two days’ food on the sixth day. Let everyone remain in place: let no one leave the vicinity on the seventh day.” So the people remained inactive on the seventh day. The house of Israel named it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like wafers in honey. Moses said, “This is what יהוה has commanded: Let one omer of it be kept throughout the ages, in order that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out from the land of Egypt.” And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, put one omer of manna in it, and place it before יהוה, to be kept throughout the ages.” As יהוה had commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the Pact, to be kept. And the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a settled land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. The omer is a tenth of an ephah.

(1) A person who goes beyond [his] city's Sabbath limit should be punished by lashes, as [Exodus 16:29] states: "No man should leave his place on the seventh day." [The term] "place" refers to the city's Sabbath limits.
The Torah did not [explicitly] state the measure of this limit. The Sages, however, transmitted the tradition that this measure was twelve mil, the length of the Jews' encampment [in the desert]. Thus, Moses our teacher was instructing them, "Do not go out beyond the camp."
Our Sages ruled that a person should go only two thousand cubits beyond the city. [Going] beyond two thousand cubits is forbidden. [The rationale for the choice of this figure is that] two thousand cubits represents the pasture land [given to] a city.

(2) [From the above,] it follows that a person may walk throughout the expanse of [any] city, even if it is as large as Nineveh, whether or not it is surrounded by a wall.
Similarly, it is permitted for a person to walk two thousand cubits in all directions outside the city. [When calculating these two thousand cubits, the entire area] is considered to be square, like a tablet, so that [the area in between] its furthest corners will also be included.
If a person goes beyond two thousand cubits up to a distance of twelve mil, he should be given "stripes for rebelliousness". If he goes even one cubit beyond twelve mil, he should be punished by lashing [as prescribed] by the Torah.

(3) [There is a question whether] a person [is liable] if he goes beyond the Sabbath limit, [travelling] at a height of more than ten handbreadths above the ground - e.g., he jumps from one pillar to another - when none of the pillars has a surface area of four handbreadths by four handbreadths. For there remains an unresolved question [among the Sages] whether or not the Sabbath limits apply ten handbreadths above the ground..
[The matter is one of question only in an instance similar to the example given.] If, by contrast, a person walks on a surface that is four [handbreadths] by four [handbreadths], it is as if he is walking on the ground [even though the surface is ten handbreadths above the ground]. The Sabbath limits apply in such an instance.

(4) A person who spends the Sabbath in a barn in the desert, in a corral, in a cave, or in a similar type of private domain may walk through its entire space and [may continue] to the limits of a square extending two thousand cubits in every direction [from that domain].
Similarly, a person who spends the Sabbath in an [open] valleymay walk to the limits of a square extending two thousand cubits in every direction from the place [at which he is located at the commencement of the Sabbath]. [This applies] even when he was sleeping at the time of the commencement of the Sabbath and thus did not consciously acquire the place as his Sabbath base.
A person who is walking in an open valley and does not know how far his Sabbath limit extends may take two thousand ordinary steps. This is [his] Sabbath limit.

(5) When a person walks the two thousand cubits that he is entitled to walk and his limit ends in a barn, in a corral, in a cave, or in a city, he is allowed to proceed only to the end of his limit. We do not say that since his limit ends within a private domain, he is entitled to walk throughout that domain.
When does the above apply? When his limit ends in the midst of the city or in the midst of the cave. If, however, that private domain is included within his two thousand cubits, that entire domain is considered to be only four cubits, and the remainder [of the two thousand cubits] is calculated accordingly.

(6) What is implied? If there were one thousand cubits from the place a person established as his base for the Sabbath, or from the town [in which he spent the Sabbath], to a city or a cave that is a thousand cubits long or less, he may walk through the entire city or cave that he encounters and [continue] beyond it for 996 cubits.

(7) If, however, [in the instance mentioned above,] the city or the cave that begins within his Sabbath limits extends one thousand and one cubits, the person may walk only one thousand cubits - i.e., he may proceed to the end of the two thousand cubits [granted] him, [but no further].

(8) A person whose Sabbath limits end in the midst of a town may, nevertheless, move an article to any place within the town by throwing it.
When a person spends the Sabbath in an open valley, and gentiles surround him with an enclosure on the Sabbath, he may still walk only two thousand cubits - even when this measure is included within the enclosure - in any direction. He may, nevertheless, move an article to any place within the enclosure by throwing it, provided it was enclosed for the sake of habitation.

(9) [The following rule applies when] a person is in the midst of a journey - whether on sea or on dry land - and [intends] to enter a city: If he comes within two thousand cubits of the city before the commencement of the Sabbath, even though he did not arrive at the city until [after] the Sabbath [had commenced], he is permitted to enter, to walk throughout the entire city, and [continue] for two thousand cubits outside of it in all directions.

(10) [The following rule applies when] a person [is in the midst of a journey and intends to enter] a city, but falls asleep on the way, and does not awake until [after] the Sabbath [has commenced]: If when he awakes, he finds himself within the city's [Sabbath] limits, he is permitted to enter, to walk throughout the entire city, and [continue] for two thousand cubits outside of it in all directions.
[This is permitted] because his intent was to journey to this city. Therefore, he is considered to have established his "place" for the Sabbath together with the inhabitants of this city, since he entered into their limits.

(11) A person who goes even a single cubit beyond [a city's] Sabbath limits should not reenter them. [The rationale is that] the four cubits that a person is granted in which to walk begin from the place where the person is standing. Therefore, since the person went a cubit or more beyond his Sabbath limit, he must remain in his place. He may not walk except in the four cubits that begin from the place in which he is standing, and continue in a forward direction.
Similarly, a person who is even one cubit outside a city's Sabbath limits when darkness falls should not enter the city. Instead, he may proceed only two thousand cubits from the place where he was standing when the Sabbath commenced. If a person's Sabbath limit ends in the midst of the city, he may proceed [no further] than the end of his Sabbath limit, as has been explained.
If one of a person's feet is inside [a city's] Sabbath limits and his other foot is outside the Sabbath limits [when the Sabbath commences], he may enter.

(12) [The following rules apply to] a person who left the Sabbath limits unintentionally - e.g., gentiles took him outside [the limits], he was possessed by an undesirable temperament, or he inadvertently went beyond [the limit]: He may walk no more than four cubits.
If he returned [within his previous Sabbath limits] voluntarily, he may walk no more than four cubits. If [the forces that caused him to depart] returned him, it is as if he had never departed.
If [these forces] left him in a private domain - e.g., the gentiles placed him in a barn, a corral, a cave, or another city - he may walk throughout that domain. Similarly, if he inadvertently left his Sabbath limits [and entered] a domain of this nature, and became conscious of his actions while in this domain, he may walk throughout that domain.

(13) When a person voluntarily left the Sabbath limits, he may walk only within four cubits, even when he was returned to his [original] Sabbath limits involuntarily - e.g., he was taken back by gentiles or because of an undesirable temperament.
Similarly, if he voluntarily left the Sabbath limits, he may walk only within four cubits even when he is within a private domain - e.g., a barn or a corral.
A person who sets out on the Mediterranean Sea may walk throughout the ship and carry throughout the ship, even though he is outside the Sabbath limits that he originally established as his Sabbath base.

(14) Whenever a person leaves his Sabbath limits unintentionally, and is surrounded by an enclosure on the Sabbath, he may walk throughout [the area of] that enclosure, provided it does not exceed two thousand cubits.
When this enclosure that is created without his knowledge overlaps part of the Sabbath limit that he left [an additional leniency is granted]. Since he is allowed to walk throughout that enclosure, he may reenter his Sabbath limits. Once he enters, [he may proceed freely,] as if he had never left.

(15) [The following rules apply when] any of the individuals whose movement is restricted to four cubits must relieve himself: He may leave [these four cubits], move away [an appropriate distance], relieve himself, and then return to his place.
If when moving away to relieve himself, the person enters a portion of the Sabbath limits that he originally left: since he has entered, [his] entry [is accepted as fact], and it is as though he had never departed. [This leniency applies] provided he originally left unintentionally. If he left intentionally, he may walk only [within] four cubits, even if he reentered [his original limits].

(16) [The following rules apply to] all individuals who are sanctioned by the court [to leave their Sabbath limits] - e.g., witnesses who are going to testify regarding their sighting of the moon, - and all others who are allowed to depart because of a mitzvah: When they reach their destination, they may proceed two thousand cubits in all directions. Should they become located in a city, they [are governed by] the same [rules as] the inhabitants of that city, and may proceed two thousand cubits beyond the city in all directions.

(17) [The following rules apply when] a person was sanctioned to depart [from his Sabbath limits], but in the midst of his journey, he was informed that the mitzvah that he had intended to perform had already been completed: He may proceed two thousand cubits in all directions. If a portion of the Sabbath limit from which he departed overlaps these two thousand cubits, he may return to his [original] place, and it is as though he had never departed.
All those who depart [from the Sabbath limits] to rescue Jewish lives from gentiles, from a [flooding] river, or from an avalanche, are granted two thousand cubits [in which to walk] from the place where they rescue them. [When Jews are rescued from gentiles, but] the gentiles' position is strong, and the rescuers fear spending [the remainder of] the Sabbath in the place where they rescue them, they may return to their [original] place, [carrying] their weapons.