When Did Jews Settle on the Seven-Day Week?

It was only in the early-to-mid first millennium BCE that both the ancient Babylonians and the ancient Hebrews began dividing their lunar months into seven-day periods.

Chapter 23 of Leviticus states:

Seven weeks you shall count for yourself: from the time the sickle is put to the grain, you shall begin to count seven weeks. And you shall keep the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God with a donation of your choosing, which you shall give the Lord your God.

We are now past the midpoint of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot—the name of the latter holiday being the plural of the Hebrew shavu’a, week. The word, coming from sheva, “seven,” also gives us shiv’ah, the seven days or mourning after a death.

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