on these days, spaced seven days apart (except the nineteenth), include abstaining from chariot riding and the avoidance of eating meat by the King. On these days, officials were prohibited from various activities, and common people were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest-day". This theory has also been challenged because the 'evil days' did not always fall every seven days and did not entail a general cessation of work.

The earliest extrabiblical attestation of Sabbath might occur in a 7th-century