Exodus 31:16

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath,.... On whom the sabbath of the seventh day was only enjoined, as well as that of the seventh and of the fiftieth years, being all ceremonial

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

Or, shall keep the sabbath by observing or celebrating the sabbath, i. e. by observing or celebrating it, the antecedent being put for the relative, as is frequently done. So here is another most emphatical repetition to oblige us to the greater caution and diligence in this great duty, and to show what stress God lays upon it, who hath therefore placed this in the midst of the commands of the decalogue, as the heart which gives life and rigour to all the rest. Or it may be rendered thus; shall observe the day of rest to celebrate the sabbath; and so the phrase is like that in the fourth command, Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. So here, Observe the sabbath. i.e. watch its coming and approach, consider attentively the nature and use of it, and that not as a matter of idle speculation, but of serious practice; or, so that you may do or celebrate the sabbath, i.e. perform all the duties of it. Or thus, shall observe the sabbath, to make it a sabbath or day of rest, and that no idle or carnal rest, but a rest, holy to the Lord, as it is called in the foregoing verse. For a perpetual covenant, or, by a perpetual covenant, or, it is a perpetual covenant, i. e. condition or part of that agreement made between me and them. They have solemnly covenanted or promised that they will do all that I commanded them, ,8, among which this is a chief branch; and I have covenanted to bless and sanctify them in so doing. And this word perpetual, as also the word for ever, being added to it in the next verse, may intimate that this hath a longer perpetuity than the ceremonies, to which this phrase is sometimes ascribed, the rather because the reason of this perpetuity given in the next verse is such as hath its force not only till Christ, but even till the end of the world, and it is fit and just that men should retain this monument or memorial of the world’ s creation even till its dissolution.

Exodus 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, [for] a perpetual covenant.Ver. 16. For a perpetual covenant.] So the Sabbath is called by way of eminency; as if nothing of God’ s covenant were kept, if this were not Philo Judaeus saith, The fourth commandment is a famous precept, and profitable to excite all kind of virtue and piety.

THE LAW OF THE SABBATH ANEW UNDER A PENAL .(12-17) The worship of the tabernacle was so closely connected with Sabbatical observance (Leviticus 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 (Exodus 16:4); now it was elevated into a sacramental sign between God and His people (Exodus 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 (Exodus 31:14-15).

Verse 16. A perpetual covenant.] Because it is a sign of this future rest and blessedness, therefore the religious observance of it must be perpetually kept up. The type must continue in force till the antitype come.

16, 17. The main thoughts of vv. 13–15 repeated, and emphasized, in P’s manner: cf. on Exodus 6:27.