Exodus 31:13

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel,.... Notwithstanding all that has been said and ordered concerning making the tabernacle and all things belonging to it; yet this was not to be understood

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep.

My sabbaths ye shall keep: this precept is here repeated, either, 1. To show the chief use of the tabernacle, and all this cost and trouble about it, to wit, that they might there acceptably serve God, as in some measure upon every day, so especially upon the sabbath day. Or rather, 2. To restrain the time for the doing of the forementioned works: q.d. Though the work of the tabernacle and utensils be holy, and for a holy use, yet I will not have it done upon my holy day. The sabbath was not made for them, but they for it, and therefore they shall give place to it. It is a sign between me and you. The sabbath is a fivefold sign: 1. Commemorative, of God’ s creation of and dominion over them and all other things, to whom they do hereby profess their subjection. 2. Indicative, showing that they were made to be holy, and that their sanctification can be had from none but from God, as it here follows, and from the observation of God’ s days and appointments. 3. Distinctive, whereby they owned themselves to be the Lord’ s peculiar people, by a religious keeping of those sabbaths, which the rest of the world grossly neglected and profanely scoffed at. 4. Prefigurative, of that rest which Christ should purchase for them, to wit, a rest from the burden of the ceremonial, and from the curses and rigours of the moral law, as also from sin and the wrath of God for ever. See Hebrews 4. 5. Confirmative, both assuring them of God’ s good will to them, and that as he blessed the sabbath for their sakes, so he would bless them in the holy use of it with temporal, spiritual, and everlasting blessings, as he declares in many places of Scripture; and assuring God of their standing to that covenant made between God and them. So that this was a mutual stipulation or ratification of the covenant of grace on both sides. That doth sanctify you; that selecteth you out of all people, and consecrateth you to myself, and to my service and worship, a great part whereof is the observation of the sabbath. Or, that sanctifieth you by my word and ordinances, which are in more eminent and solemn manner dispensed upon the sabbath day, by the observation whereof you declare that you own me as your only Sanctifier; and so we may observe, the sabbath owns the Lord as our Creator, and as our Redeemer, and as our Sanctifier; and therefore it is no wonder God so severely enjoins the sanctification of the sabbath, and punisheth the neglect of it, it being a tacit renouncing or disowning of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Exodus 31:13 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.Ver. 13. Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep,] q.d., Though this sanctuary work is to be done, yet it shall be no Sabbath day’ s work. The good women in the Gospel forbare on the Sabbath to anoint the dead body of our Saviour, "resting according to the commandment." For it is a sign.] And with it an effectual means to convey holiness into the heart.

(13) It is a sign between me and you.—Circumcision had been given as a covenant sign to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:9-13); but its adoption by many of the heathen nations had rendered it no longer a distinguishing mark by which God’s people could be certainly known from others. Thus a new “sign” was needed. The observance of one day in seven as a day of holy rest became henceforth the distinguishing sign, and proved effectual. It was not likely to be adopted, and in point of fact was not adopted, by any of the heathen. We find it in the latest time of the Jewish nation still regarded as the special mark and badge of a Jew (Juv. Sat. vi. 159, 14:96; Mart. Epig. 4:4, 50:7, &c.).

Verse 13. My Sabbaths ye shall keep] See Clarke on Genesis 2:3; and "Exodus 20:8".

13. Speak thou also] And thou (emph.), speak thou (Exodus 27:20). Verily] cf. on Exodus 12:15 (‘surely’). ye shall keep my Sabbaths] the sabbaths sacred to me. Note exactly the same words in H, Leviticus 19:3; Leviticus 19:30; Leviticus 26:2 : ‘my sabbaths,’ also, often in Ezek. (Ezekiel 20:12-13; Ezekiel 20:16; Ezekiel 20:20-21; Ezekiel 20:24, Ezekiel 22:8; Ezekiel 22:26, Ezekiel 23:38, Ezekiel 44:24); only besides in Isaiah 56:4†. a sign, &c.] The sabbath, as a day observed weekly in honour of Jehovah, and kept sacred to Him, is a constantly recurring memorial of Israel’s dedication to Him, and of the covenant-relation subsisting between them. Comp. Ezekiel 20:12 (cited below). throughout your generations] See on Exodus 12:14. So v. 16. that men may know (Heb. simply to know: so Psalms 67:2 Heb.) &c.] that all the world may recognize, by means of the sabbath, that it is Jehovah who ‘sanctifies’ Israel, or provides it with the means of becoming a holy people. ‘I am Jehovah which sanctify [better, ‘which sancti fieth’] you (him, them)’ is one of the dominant thoughts of H (Leviticus 20:8; Leviticus 21:15 (cf. v. 8), Leviticus 21:23, Leviticus 22:9; Leviticus 22:16; Leviticus 22:32). Comp. Ezekiel 20:12 ‘I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that men might know [Heb. to know] that I am Jehovah, which sanctifieth them’ (similarly v. 20); also, for the last clause, Ezekiel 37:12.

THE SABBATH LAW, Exodus 31:12-17. 13. My sabbaths ye shall keep — How repeatedly the sanctity of the sabbath day is affirmed! In Exodus 20:8-11, (where see notes,) we have it formally enjoined in the decalogue.