Exodus 20:11

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, c] And of which six days, and of the several things made in each of them, see the notes on the first chapter of

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

In six days, and neither in more nor less time, as he could have done. Rested, i.e. ceased from his creating works; otherwise he worketh still by his providence and grace; and neither is idle nor weary, ; but this rest is ascribed to him for our admonition and imitation. The Lord blessed the sabbath day, i.e. made it a day of blessing; as well of receiving blessings and praises from men, as of conferring his blessings and favours upon those that religiously observe it. The day is said to be blessed when men are blessed by it, and in it, by a common metonymy, as a man’ s field, , and basket and store, , and the work of his hands, , are said to be blessed when a man is blessed in them. It is remarkable, the blessing and sanctification are not appropriated to the seventh day, but to the sabbath day, whether it should be the seventh day, as to the Jews it then was, or the first day, as to us Christians now it is, which change seems hereby to be insinuated. Hallowed it, i.e. separated it from the rest of the days, and from all common employments, and consecrated it to his own holy service, and man’ s holy use.

Exodus 20:11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.Ver. 11. For in six days.] God took six days to make the world in, to the end that we might be in a muse when we think of it; and think on his works in that order that he made them. And rested the seventh day.] Not as tired out - for he made all without either tool or toil; his Fiat only did the deed - but to give us example, as John 13:15. Wherefore the Lord blessed, &c.] How God esteemeth the strict observation of the Sabbath day, may appear by the exact delivery of it. For he hath fenced it about, like mount Sinai, with marks and bounds, that profaneness might not approach it: (l.) By his watchword, "Remember"; (2.) By his bounty, "Six days," &c.; (3.) By his sovereignty, "It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God"; (4.) By the latitude, "Thou, nor thy son," &c.; (5.) By his own example, "And he rested the seventh day"; (6.) By his benediction, as here, "He blessed it," and ordained it to be a means of much blessing to those that observe it. Add hereunto, that God hath placed this command in the midst of the Decalogue, betwixt the two tables; as much conducing to the keeping of both. It stands like the sensus communis, between the inward and outward senses, being serviceable to both. And hallowed it.] Diem septimam opifex, ut mundi natalem, sibi sacravit. Bodin., Theat. Naturae.

(11) For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth.—Comp. Genesis 2:2-3, and Exodus 31:17. It is not improbable that the work of creation was made to occupy six days because one day in seven is the appropriate proportion of rest to labour for such a being as man. God might have created all things on one day had He so pleased; but, having the institution of the Sabbath in view, He prefigured it by spreading His work over six days, and then resting on the seventh. His law of the Sabbath established a conformity between the method of His own working and that of His reasonable creatures, and taught men to look on work, not as an aimless, indefinite, incessant, weary round, but as leading on to an end, a rest, a fruition, a time for looking back, and seeing the result and rejoicing in it. Each Sabbath is such a time, and is a type and foretaste of that eternal “sabbatising” in another world which “remaineth for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). The secondary object of the institution of the Sabbath, assigned in Deuteronomy 5:15, is in no way incompatible with this primary one. The thought of God’s works in creation might well be associated in the mind of an. Israelite with the thought of His “wondrous works” in Egypt, and the recollection of the blessed peace and rest in which creation resulted, with the memory of the glad time of repose and refreshment which supervened upon the weary task work of the Egyptian bondage.

11. Why the sabbath is to be observed. The reason is based upon Genesis 2:3, cf. Exodus 31:17 b (both P). The motive may have operated with the writer of the comment; but it cannot state the real reason for the observance of the sabbath. ‘P’s story of the Creation, with the six days followed by the sacred seventh, is not the cause of the Sabbath, but the result of the fact that the week ending with the Sabbath was an existing institution. P adjusts the work of creation to it’ (McNeile). Cf. the present writer’s Genesis, p. 35. On the different motive assigned for the observance in Deuteronomy 5:15, see p. 192. rested] This is the word nûaḥ ?, meaning relaxation, referred to on v. 8: cf. Exodus 23:12 b, Deuteronomy 5:14 b; and for the thought Exodus 31:17 b (‘desisted, and was refreshed’). (In Genesis 2:2-3 the word used is ‘desisted.’) blessed … hallowed] i.e. made it a day which would bring a blessing on those who observed it, and made it sacred to Himself. It is impossible to consider here with any fulness the history and significance of the sabbath; and for a more detailed discussion the writer must refer to his art. Sabbath in DB. iv. It is not impossible that ultimately the institution was of Babylonian origin: in Babylonian there occurs (though rarely) the word shabattum, meaning day for propitiating a deity’s anger1[178], and in Babylonia also, especially in the earlier periods of the history, every seventh day of the month was marked by abstention from secular business2[179]: but even if that was the case (for connecting links are still wanting), it is certain that when adopted by the Hebrews, a new character was impressed upon it by the higher and purer religion of Israel. In the earliest legislation of the Hebrews, the sabbath appears as a day of cessation from (in particular) field-work, designed with a humanitarian end (Exodus 23:12 E; Exodus 34:21 J), and, to judge from the context, possessing already a religious character: in the Decalogue, in what is probably (see above) the oldest part of the Commandment, it is to be kept ‘holy’ by the Israelite: in the early historical books, it is associated with the ‘new moon,’ in a manner which implies that both were occasions of intermission from labour and trade (Amos 8:5), and holidays (2 Kings 4:22-23); Hosea (Exodus 2:11), and Isaiah (Exodus 1:13), both allude to it as a day of religious observance. In later times, both the religious observances and also the abstention from labour were increasingly emphasized. In H and Ezek. (see on Ezekiel 31:13) the observance of the sabbath is repeatedly insisted on: cf. a little later Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 56:4; Isaiah 56:6; Isaiah 58:13 f., and (in the ideal future) Isaiah 66:23. Ezekiel, also, in his ideal legislation for the future (chs.

11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth — Here is a direct reference to what is recorded in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3, where see notes, and also pages 63 and 64 of the Introduction.