בראשית ח, כב וְׁיוֹם וָּלַיְׁלָּה לֹא יִשְׁׁבֹתוּ :
מסכת סנהדרין דף נח/ב אר"ל עובד כוכבים ששבת חייב מיתה שנא' ויום ולילה לא ישבותו ואמר מר אזהרה שלהן זו היא מיתתן
Rashi says that to become liable, a non-Jew must refrain from halachic work for a full day. T.T. The understanding of this verse is that the action of “not refraining” refers to a person, and not to the six types of times previously mentioned in the verse, since these time periods and constellations did not cease to function during the Flood. And the general rule is that a human was created to do work, and needs to do work to live and not die. Great is the work that a person does, since it will “enliven” one. Thus, G-d commanded that humans must work or they would “as if” incur a death penalty. T.T. Thus, one must think this would also apply to a Jew if one were to refrain from work for a complete day. However, a Jew is able to do a positive alternative by engaging in Torah study and spiritual avodah when refraining from work (which is not an option for non-Jews).
