Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Parallel Translations
-
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
-
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
-
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:
Cross-references
No cross-references for this verse.
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 31:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 31:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Ver. 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.] See on Exo 31:1.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. A strict command for the sanctification…
Here is, I. A strict command for the sanctification of the sabbath day, Exo 31:13-17. The law of the sabbath had been given them before any other law, by was of preparation (Exo 16:23); it had been inserted in the body of the moral law, in the fourth commandment; it had been annexed to the judicial law (Exo 23:12); and here it is added to the first part of the ceremonial law, because the observance of the sabbath is indeed the hem and hedge of the whole law; where no conscience is made of that, farewell both godliness and honesty; for, in the moral law, it stands in the midst between the two tables. Some suggest that it comes in here upon another account. Orders were now given that a tabernacle should be set up and furnished for the service of God with all possible expedition; but lest they should think that the nature of the work, and the haste that was required, would justify them in working at it on sabbath days, that they might get it done the sooner, this caution is seasonably inserted, Verily, or nevertheless, my sabbaths you shall keep. Though they must hasten the work, yet they must not make more haste than good speed; they must not break the law of the sabbath in their haste: even tabernacle-work must give way to the sabbath-rest; so jealous is God for the honour of his sabbaths. Observe what is here said concerning the sabbath day.
1. The nature, meaning, and intention, of the sabbath, by the declaration of which God puts an honour upon it, and teaches us to value it. Divers things are here said of the sabbath. (1.) It is a sign between me and you (Exo 31:13), and again, Exo 31:17. The institution of the sabbath was a great instance of God's favour to them, and a sign that he had distinguished them from all other people; and their religious observance of the sabbath was a great instance of their duty and obedience to him. God, by sanctifying this day among them, let them know that he sanctified them, and set them apart for himself and his service; otherwise he would not have revealed to them his holy sabbaths, to be the support of religion among them. Or it may refer to the law concerning the sabbath, Keep my sabbaths, that you may know that I the Lord do sanctify you. Note, If God by his grace incline our hearts to keep the law of the fourth commandment, it will be an evidence of a good work wrought in us by his Spirit. If we sanctify God's day, it is a sign between him and us that he has sanctified our hearts: hence it is the character of the blessed man that he keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, Isa 56:2. The Jews, by observing one day in seven, after six days' labour, testified and declared that they worshipped the God who made the world in six days, and rested the seventh; and so distinguished themselves from other nations, who, having first lost the sabbath, which was instituted to be a memorial of the creation, by degrees lost the knowledge of the Creator, and gave that honour to the creature which was due to him alone. (2.) It is holy unto you (Exo 31:14), that is, "It is designed for your benefit as well as for God's honour;" the sabbath was made for man. Or, "It shall be accounted holy by you, and shall so be observed, and you shall look upon it a sacrilege to profane it." (3.) It is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord, Exo 31:15. It is separated from common use, and designed for the honour and service of God, and by the observance of it we are taught to rest from worldly pursuits and the service of the flesh, and to devote ourselves, and all we are, have, and can do, to God's glory. (4.) It was to be observed throughout their generations, in every age, for a perpetual covenant. Exo 31:16. This was to be one of the most lasting tokens of that covenant which was between God and Israel.
Read full note →
2. The law of the sabbath. They must keep it (Exo 31:13, Exo 31:14, Exo 31:16), keep it as a treasure, as a trust, observe it and preserve it, keep it from polluting it, keep it up as a sign between God and them, keep it and never part with it. The Gentiles had anniversary-feasts, to the honour of their gods; but it was peculiar to the Jews to have a weekly festival; this therefore they must carefully observe.
3. The reason of the sabbath; for God's laws are not only backed with the highest authority, but supported with the best reason. God's own example is the great reason, Exo 31:17. As the work of creation is worthy to be thus commemorated, so the great Creator is worthy to be thus imitated, by a holy rest, the seventh day, after six days' labour, especially since we hope, in further conformity to the same example, shortly to rest with him from all our labours.
4. The penalty to be inflicted for the breach of this law: "Every one that defileth the sabbath, by doing any work therein but works of piety and mercy, shall be cut off from among his people (Exo 31:14); he shall surely be put to death. Exo 31:15. The magistrate must cut him off the sword of justice if the crime can be proved; if it cannot, or if the magistrate be remiss, and do not do his duty, God will take the work into his own hands, and cut him off by a stroke from heaven, and his family shall be rooted out of Israel." Note, The contempt and profanation of the sabbath day is an iniquity to be punished by the judges; and, if men do not punish it, God will, here or hereafter, unless it be repented of.
II. The delivering of the two tables of testimony to Moses. God had promised him these tables when he called him up into the mount (Exo 24:12), and now, when he was sending him down, he delivered them to him, to be carefully and honourably deposited in the ark, Exo 31:18. 1. The ten commandments which God had spoken upon mount Sinai in the hearing of all the people were now written, in perpetuam rei memoriam - for a perpetual memorial, because that which is written remains. 2. They were written in tables of stone, prepared, not by Moses, as it should seem (for it is intimated, Exo 24:12, that he found them ready written when he went up to the mount), but, as some think, by the ministry of angels. The law was written in tables of stone, to denote the perpetual duration of it (what can be supposed to last longer than that which is written in stone, and laid up?), to denote likewise the hardness of our hearts; one might more easily write in stone than write any thing that is good in our corrupt and sinful hearts. 3. They were written with the finger of God, that is, by his will and power immediately, without the use of any instrument. It is God only that can write his law in the heart; he gives a heart of flesh, and then, by his Spirit, which is the finger of God, he writes his will in the fleshly tables of the heart, Co2 3:3. 4. They were written in two tables, being designed to direct us in our duty both towards God and towards man. 5. They are called tables of testimony, because this written law testified both the will of God concerning them and his good-will towards them, and would be a testimony against them if they were disobedient. 6. They were delivered to Moses, probably with a charge, before he laid them up in the ark, to show them publicly, that they might be seen and read of all men, and so what they had heard with the hearing of the ear might now be brought to their remembrance. Thus the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After he had…
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After he had described to him the place of worship, and appointed the priests that should minister in it, and ordered the making of all things appertaining to it, and the workmen that should be concerned therein, he repeats the law of the sabbath, and puts in mind of the time of worship:
saying: as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The penal law of the Sabbath. Exo 35:2-3. In…
The penal law of the Sabbath. Exo 35:2-3. In the fourth commandment the injunction to observe the seventh day is addressed to the conscience of the people (see Exo 20:8 note): in this place, the object is to declare an infraction of the commandment to be a capital offence. The two passages stand in a relation to each other similar to that between Lev. 18, Lev. 19, and Lev. 20. It seems likely that the penal edict was especially introduced as a caution in reference to the construction of the tabernacle, lest the people, in their zeal to carry on the work, should be tempted to break the divine law for the observance of the day.
Exo 31:14
Read full note →
See Num 15:32-36. The distinction between the meaning of the two expressions, “to be cut off from the people”, and “to be put to death”, is here indicated. He who was cut off from the people had, by his offence, put himself out of the terms of the covenant, and was an outlaw. On such, and on such alone, when the offence was one which affected the well-being of the nation, as it was in this case, death could be inflicted by the public authority.
Exo 31:17
Was refreshed - Literally, “he took breath”. Compare Exo 23:12; 2Sa 16:14. The application of the word to the Creator, which occurs nowhere else, is remarkable.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep--The reason for the…
Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep--The reason for the fresh inculcation of the fourth commandment at this particular period was, that the great ardor and eagerness, with which all classes betook themselves to the construction of the tabernacle, exposed them to the temptation of encroaching on the sanctity of the appointed day of rest. They might suppose that the erection of the tabernacle was a sacred work, and that it would be a high merit, an acceptable tribute, to prosecute the undertaking without the interruption of a day's repose; and therefore the caution here given, at the commencement of the undertaking, was a seasonable admonition.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE SABBATH LAW, Exo_31:12-17.
THE SABBATH LAW, Exo_31:12-17.
13. My sabbaths ye shall keep — How repeatedly the sanctity of the sabbath day is affirmed! In Exo_20:8-11, (where see notes,) we have it formally enjoined in the decalogue. In Exo_23:12, it is again set forth in connexion with the law of the sabbatic year, and so again and again throughout the Pentateuch. In Exo_35:2-3, it introduces the account of the preparations for building the tabernacle, as if resuming the narrative broken off at the conclusion of this chapter to introduce the account of the idolatry of the people at Sinai. Hence it has been supposed that a special reason for the emphasizing of the sabbath law in this connexion was to deter the people from labour on the tabernacle on that day, which in their zeal to complete the sanctuary they might have presumed to do, even in violation of the former commandment. The expression my sabbaths gives emphasis to the thought that the weekly sabbath was a peculiar treasure of Jehovah.
Read full note →
It is a sign — Old as the creation, (comp. Exo_31:17 and Gen_2:2-3, and note on Exo_20:11,) and a constant reminder that God and his people may enjoy a common rest.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12-17) The worship of the tabernacle was so closely…
THE LAW OF THE SABBATH DECLARED ANEW UNDER A PENAL SANCTION.
(12-17) The worship of the tabernacle was so closely connected with Sabbatical observance (Lev_19:30), that no surprise can be felt at a recurrence to the subject in the present place. It was not only that there might be a danger of zealous men breaking the Sabbatical rest in their eagerness to hasten forward the work of construction now required of them. The re-enactment of the Law might serve to check this tendency if it existed; but clearly the present passage is not specially directed to so narrow an object. It is altogether general in its aim and teaching. It re-enacts the law of the Sabbath (1) under a new sanction; and (2) with new light in its intention and value. Hitherto the Sabbath had been, in the main, a positive enactment intended to test obedience (Exo_16:4); now it was elevated into a sacramental sign between God and His people (Exo_31:13). Having become such a sign, it required to be guarded by a new sanction, and this was done by assigning the death-penalty to any infraction of the law of Sabbath observance (Exo_31:14-15).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 12-17. THE PENALTY FOR NOT OBSERVING THE SABBATH.…
Vers. 12-17. THE PENALTY FOR NOT OBSERVING THE SABBATH. Various reasons have been given for this recurrence to the sanctity of the sabbath. Kurtz connects it with the giving of the two tables, in which "the law of the sabbath held a particularly prominent place.
Kalisch and others view it rather as the sequel to the directions concerning the tabernacle, and as designed to teach "that the holy service in the tabernacle could not supersede the observance of the sabbath, but derived front that observance its true value." A third set of critics regard the recurrence to the subject as purely practical being intended to meet an immediate danger that of the people, in their zeal to erect the tabernacle, setting sabbath observance at nought. (So Jarchi, Aben-Ezra, Clark, Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, and others.) It is to be observed, however, that the present passage is not a mere repetition. It adds to former notices (Exo_20:8-11 Exo_23:12) two new points:
Read full note →
1. That the sabbath was to be a sign between God and Israel, a "distinguishing badge," a "sacramental bond" (Cook); and
2. That its desecration was to be punished with death (ver. 15). These were supplementary points of so much importance as to furnish ample reason against their announcement being delayed.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Vers. 12-18. The Sabbath.
If this prohibition to work upon the Sabbath is introduced, as probably it is, lest the people, in their zeal for the service of the sanctuary, should be tempted to infringe upon the holy day, it has certain obvious sides of instruction turned towards ourselves. We cannot but see in it the high honour which God puts upon his Sabbath.
1. It is the one command of the Decalogue to which reference is made in the conclusion of this series of instructions. This implies its great importance. It shows that, in God"s esteem, the observance of the Sabbath was intimately bound up with the best interests of Israel.
2. The Sabbath is declared to be a sign between God and the Israelites. It was to be a memorial to future generations that Jehovah had made a covenant with the nation, and had sanctified them to himself. But its very selection for this purpose was a tribute to its importance. The reason of the selection could only be that the Sabbath was in itself a boon of the highest kind to Israel, and had important bearings on the state of morals and religion. A well- or ill-spent Sabbath, as all history shows, has much to do with the character both of the individual and of the community. The Sabbath, further, is a "sign" in this respect, that it is at once a means for the promotion of true religion, and a test or indication of its presence. A disregard of Divine authority shows itself in nothing more readily than in a disposition to break in upon the day of rest to take from it its sacred character.
3. The Sabbath is not to be infringed upon, even for the work of the tabernacle. There was no such excessive haste, no such imperative call, for the sanctuary being finished, that the Sabbath needed to be broken by the plying of handicrafts, in order to get it done. We are taught that even our zeal for God"s work is not to be allowed to betray us into unnecessary infractions of the day of rest.. This is not, of course, to be applied to spiritual work, to afford an opportunity for which is one end of the giving of the Sabbath.
4. The breaker of the Sabbath was to be put to death. This was not too severe a punishment for the deliberate breaking of a law so repeatedly enforced, and the observance of which had been made by Jehovah a "sign" of the covenant between himself and Israel. Slight as the act seems, it was, in this case, a crime of a very flagrant order. It was punished as an act of treason. At the conclusion of these commands, God gave to Moses the two tables of testimony, "tables of stone, written with the finger of God." A symbol
(1) of the perpetuity of the law,
(2) of its want of power to regenerate. J.O. (2Co_3:7)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Exo_31:14. Ye shall keep the Sabbath = Ushemartem eth…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_31:14. Ye shall keep the Sabbath = Ushemartem eth hashahabbath]. The verb shamar = to keep, implies the idea of guarding, watching over with tenderness and fidelity. (Comp. Psa_21:4-5, “He that keepeth Israel”—and, “The LORD is thy keeper”). Thus Israel, by keeping the Sabbath aright, was intended to cultivate those ennobling qualities of the human heart and mind which should distinguish them as a people in covenant with God, both their keeper and liberator, to bless them with rest from the works of their bondage, and with peace on account of His jealous love and care.
Read full note →
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_31:12-18
THE SABBATH AND THE SANCTUARY
The command to keep the Sabbath was included already in the decalogue, and there is therefore some special meaning in the repetition of the command in this place. Coming as it does at the conclusion of the instructions respecting the Tabernacle, it is evident that the intention was to teach the connection which existed between these great institutions. We observe—
I. Both exist to the same divine end. What is the end of the sanctuary? That man may come near to God—that he may worship God. All understand this. The sanctuary does not exist to any merely intellectual or physical end, but it is the place where our spiritual nature is to be instructed and purified and blessed by communion with the Holy Spirit (Psa_27:4). What is the end of the Sabbath? Precisely that of the sanctuary. Many entertain the idea that the grand end of the Sabbath is physical rest—that this is one of its purposes is quite true, but it by no means exhausts the meaning of the day; neither is the grand end of it intellectual—visiting picture galleries and science lectures, &c. its grand object is spiritual. The Sabbath is primarily intended to free man from bodily toil and secular care, that he may give his earnest attention to his spiritual nature. The sanctuary and the Sabbath have one purpose, and that is religious and holy.
II. Both are alike essential for the accomplishment of that end. They cannot be divorced.
1. If the public worship of God is neglected the Sabbath will soon be secularised. The Sabbath has a divine basis, and when God ceases to be recognised and worshipped, this day will no longer retain its spell.
2. If the Sabbath is secularised, religious worship will soon cease. If we spend some hours of the sacred day frivolously, how seriously it impairs our worship in the temple! When society give up the Sabbath to physical and intellectual pleasures, it will give up its God and His worship soon after. Some who are fully persuaded of the importance of the sanctuary and its services, have very loose views on the keeping of the Sabbath. It is greatly to be deplored. The Sabbath is the main pillar in the temple of God, and if it comes down the whole fabric of divinity comes down with it.
III. Both are alike of absolute and perpetual obligation. We know that the worship of God is of strict and perpetual obligation, and thus is the Sabbath. Read the text. And Christ did not revoke or modify the obligation of keeping this day to high and holy ends.
Lessons:—
1. We see the wickedness of those who would secularise the Sabbath. It would shock us if some profane man made a stable of a church; it ought not to shock us less to see God’s holy day profaned to worldly ends. Anti-Sabbatarianism is essentially atheistic.
2. We see the mistake of those who seem to think that having worshipped they may spend the remainder of the Sabbath in worldliness and pleasure.
3. We see the error of those who think that doing religious work justifies certain forms of Sabbath desecration. The Israelites had a great work to do in building the Tabernacle, but they were not to build it on the Sabbath; and we must all take care that the work of the Sabbath which we call unavoidable is really so.
4. We see the error of those who think they have kept the Sabbath when they rest from their work, but who absent themselves from the house of God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Mosaic-Mines! Exo_31:1-18.
(1.) The face of Nature, says Macmillan, is everywhere written over with Divine characters, which he who runs may read. But beside the more obvious lessons which lie, as it were, in the surface of the earth, and which suggest themselves to us often when least disposed for inquiry or reflection, there are more recondite lessons which she teaches to those who make her structure arrangements their special study, and who penetrate to her secret arcana. And those, who read her great volume, passing on leaf after leaf, to the quiet and sober chapters of the interior, will find in these internal details revelations of the deepest interest.
(2.) It is even so with the Bible. In the New Testament, we have a rich robe of vegetation adorning the surface, the beauties of tree and flower, forest, hill and river, and the ever-changing splendours of the sky. In the psalms and prophets we walk amid the beauty of gardens and ornamented parterres, where every-thing thrills with their beauty and fragrance. But in the pentateuch, we descend, as it were, into the crust of the earth. We lose sight of all these upper-air glories; but we find new objects to compensate us—truths written with the finger of God—lessons on the deep things of God—diamonds which sparkle when brought up within the sphere of the Sun of Righteousness, who has risen with healing in His wings.
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear.”
—Gray.
Sabbath-Storm! Exo_31:12-15. Owing to the length of the winter and the shortness of the summer on the Swiss mountains of Jura, it is of great importance for the peasantry to preserve their hay; otherwise the cattle would starve. One Lord’s Day, when the hay was just in the finest condition for taking up, the sons of an old man who feared God and honoured His Sabbaths, proposed to go and cut it. He admonished them for the wickedness of such desecration; but they persisted and went. Just as they had cut it down, a sudden and terrible storm broke over their heads, the rain poured down from the thunderclouds in torrents, and the hay was soon completely destroyed. Returning home drenched and dispirited, the sainted patriarch replied: “My sons, learn from this to respect the commandments of God.”
“I do regret God’s day among the hills,
Spent in wild wand’rings in His world so fair;
Warmed by the sunshine which His mercy fills,
Swept by His mighty wings when storms were there;
When I passed by the church’s sacred door,
And left His people all within once more.”
Sabbath-Significance! Exo_31:16. In addition to other important ends, the Sabbath was intended to be an ever-recurring symbol of heaven, and a prophecy of the rest that remaineth for the people of God. It is thus explained at large by inspired writers, and by those who accept the Bible as from God this statement will not be questioned. It is not essential to our purpose to determine whether or not this institution be still binding upon the Christian Church. But it is clear as a sunbeam that, as positive institution, prophetic type, or soothing symbol, the Sabbath has graven its name on the very heart of Christianity. Its sweet voice is heard in her hymus and psalms of praise. To unnumbered millions of her children it is the only practical foretaste of that blessed rest which it foreshadows, and which the servants of God anticipate with longing hearts.
“Day of all the week the best,
Emblem of eternal rest.”
Testimony-Tables! Exo_31:18. The learned author of “Earth’s Lessons” says, it was on tables of stone that God’s finger traced the unerring and unchanging moral law. The same handwriting may be recognised in the masses of rock from which these very tables were constructed. We can trace the universality of Divine law throughout all the successive creations of the earth—throughout all the time worlds, as throughout all the space worlds, in geology as in astronomy. That divinely universal law is unity of force amidst diversity of phenomena—unity of plan amidst diversity of expression. And thus, amid all the varying operations of His hands and dispensations of His Providence, we find Him to be without variableness or shadow of turning.
“Oh! Thou Almighty, throned above the stars,
In light eternal, which no darkness mars,
From where Thy bright pavilion is unfurled
Thou lookest on the sorrows of the world;
Thine is the kingdom, Thine is power and might,
Directing day, and ruling in the night.”
Divine Finger! Exo_31:18.
(1.) Before Moses first went up to the Mount it was the voice of God which he heard repeating the decalogue; now he sees the finger of God writing the same. By finger some understand the “power” of God, as in Exo_8:19; others conceive the “Spirit” of God, as in Luk_11:29. No doubt both are right; and the Holy Spirit by the power of God wrote the tablets.
(2.) Both as spoken by God’s own voice, and as written on the rock by God’s own finger, these commandments stand forth alone. Their supreme importance is sufficiently betokened by their prominence in the forefront of all the Mosaic ordinances and Levitical ceremonies, and by their promulgation so directly and entirely Divine. God’s finger gave to man those ten jewels of purity—
“As an eagle from the waters
Rising plumes his feathers bright,
Shaking diamonds as he soareth
Upwards in the sunny light.”
Decalogue-Restoration! Exo_31:18.
(1.) This magnificent memorial was designed by God to stand up amid the ages in full clear outline, like the Egyptian pyramids, free from external growth of any kind. But during the subsequent centuries the grand pillars disappeared. True, it stood, but a jungle of weeds and creepers had sprung up around it. Instead of insisting on the simplicity of the decalogue, the Pharisees and Syrian scholiasts planted creepers round it, so that these growing up soon hid the Memorial-Thoughts of God amongst scarves and hems, washing of pots, and tithes of mint and cummin.
(2.) It was reserved for the Lord Jesus to destroy this desolating overgrowth. With the Sword of the Spirit in His Sermon on the Mount He cleared away this noisome tangle, until the Memorial-Truths of God again flashed forth to view, and beholders were astonished at their majesty. Nay, He did more. As the restoration of ancient fabrics brings out again the old lines of carving and sculpture; so did the Restorer of the decalogue fill out the law, and bring its sayings into stronger relief: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
“When Moses stood upon the hill,
The land with storms was trembling still;
As Jesus speaks from the hillside,
All is with sunshine glorified:
The Saviour preaches on the Mount.”
—Gerok.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Concerning the Celebration of the Sabbath
Concerning the Celebration of the Sabbath
v. 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Read full note →
v. 13. Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Through the rest of the Sabbath-day the children of Israel were to remain conscious of the fact that it was Jehovah that sanctified them, the Sabbath being the day especially consecrated to His service.
v. 14. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, observe it most religiously; for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death, the desecration or profanation of the day consisting chiefly in not observing the rest enjoined by the Lord; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people, the breaking of the Sabbath being a capital crime.
v. 15. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, a day devoted entirely to rest from physical labor, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath-day, he shall surely be put to death.
v. 16. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, their resting should make the day a real Sabbath, for a perpetual covenant.
v. 17. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever, the public symbol and expression of the relation between Jehovah and Israel; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. As the text expressly notes, this phase of the Third Commandment, according to which one special day was set apart for total rest, concerned only the children of Israel. For the believers of the New Testament the observance of the Third Commandment consists in this, that we gladly hear and learn the Word of God. He that despises preaching and God’s Word destroys himself by starving his soul.
v. 18. And He (God ) gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. In what manner this engraving was done is not revealed, the fact alone being stated. The Decalogue is the word and will of the Lord, of which He Himself says that heaven and earth will pass away before one tittle of this will is invalidated. The ministry of the New Testament is written with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart, 2Co 3:3.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 You must certainly keep Yahweh's Sabbath days
You must certainly keep Yahweh's Sabbath days
God speaks of obeying his instructions about the Sabbath as keeping the Sabbath. AT: "You must certainly obey Yahweh's instructions about the Sabbath" (See: Metaphor)
Read full note →
throughout your people's generations
"through all the generations of your descendants." See how you translated this in Exodus 12:14.
who sets you apart for himself
God speaks of choosing people to be his as setting them apart for himself. AT: "who has chosen you to be his people" (See: Metaphor)
for it must be treated by you as holy
This can be stated in active form. AT: "for you must treat it as holy" (See: Active or Passive)
Everyone who defiles it
God speaks of treating the Sabbath with disrespect as defiling it. AT: "Everyone who treats the Sabbath with disrespect" or "Everyone who does not obey the laws about the Sabbath" (See: Metaphor)
must surely be put to death
"must surely be killed." This can be stated in active form. AT: "you must surely kill" or "you must surely execute" (See: Active or Passive)
must surely be cut off from his people
The metaphor "cut off" has at least three possible meanings. They can be expressed in active form: 1) "Yahweh will no longer consider him to be one of his people" 2) "you must surely send him away" or 3) "you must surely kill him." (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
but the seventh day
"but day 7" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Israel
Sabbath
sign
generation
know
set apart
holy
defile
works
cut off
rest
honor
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 31:12-18 The Sabbath was understood to be the unique…
31:12-18 The Sabbath was understood to be the unique sign of the covenant (31:13, 16, 17; see also 20:8-11; Isa 58:13-14; Jer 17:21-27; Neh 13:15-22). The Sabbath is also said to figure significantly in the achievement of God’s underlying purpose of making his people holy, that is, set apart for his exclusive use and sharing his character (Exod 31:13, 14, 15). Resting from their own work (31:15, 17) was also a practical way of demonstrating genuine dependence on God to meet their needs (see 20:8-11 and study notes).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.