SABBATH DAY’S JOURNEY
It denotes the greatest distance a Jew could walk on the Sabbath.
There is no instruction about this in the law, but when some of the people went out on the Sabbath to gather manna, Moses rebuked them: “Let each one remain in his place, and let no one go out of it on the seventh day” (Ex. 16:29).
In NT times it was accepted that a person could walk a distance of 2,000 cubits (about 900 meters); This distance had been set on the basis that when the Israelites were marching in the desert they had received the order to maintain this distance from the ark, reaching the conclusion that when they were camped there was the same distance between the tabernacle and the tents, and that This space was constantly crossed for worship.
When they were already on land, the distance was counted from the gate of the city from which the traveler left (Acts 1:12).
It is possible that the Lord was referring to this custom when he instructed his disciples to pray that, at the judgment on Jerusalem, his flight would not be “on the Sabbath” (Matt. 24:20).