A rule from Jewish tradition that limited how far people could travel on the Sabbath day. The command against working on the Sabbath was understood to include not traveling long distances (Exodus 16:27–30). A person was allowed to travel 2,000 cubits, which is about half a mile or 900 meters, but no farther (see Joshua 3:4).
This distance was decided based on two biblical references:
the space between the ark and the people following it (Joshua 3:4), or
from the pasturelands to the Levitical cities (Numbers 35:4–5).
The idea was that a person should not go farther than necessary to worship or to take care of animals.
The only place the Bible directly mentions this practice is in Acts 1:12, which describes the distance from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem as "a Sabbath day's journey." According to Josephus (a Jewish historian), this distance was between 914 to 1,097 meters (1,000 to 1,200 yards).
The rabbis (Jewish teachers) created ways to at least double this allowed distance. One method was to establish a temporary home 2,000 cubits away by carrying enough food for two meals. They would eat one meal and bury one meal in the ground to mark a temporary dwelling place. Another method was to look at a spot 2,000 cubits away and consider it their legal home for the Sabbath. They could also treat their entire town as their home and calculate the Sabbath day's journey starting from the edge of the village.