Exodus 31:13-17

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Exodus 31:12-18

Here is, I. A strict command for the sanctification of the sabbath day, Exod. 31:13-17. The law of the sabbath had been given them before any other law, by was of preparation (Exod. 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 (Exod. 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 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 to the violation of the sabbath, or the neglect of that, in which no work was to be done, no, not any relating to the tabernacle and the vessels of it; and though that was to be made, and everything belonging to it, as soon as possible, yet the sabbath was to be observed, and not broken on that... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 31:14

Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore ,.... Strictly observe it, according to the rules given concerning it: for it is holy unto you ; a day that was set apart of God for holy exercises, peculiarly on their account: everyone that defileth it ; by doing any servile work upon it, or not observing it in a religious way: shall surely be put to death ; by the hand of the civil magistrate; if the law of the Jewish sabbath is now in force, the sanction continues, and the violation of it... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 31:15

Six days may work be done ;.... Allowed to be done by an Israelite, if he would; for this is not a command to work, but a permission or grant to do it; and therefore, seeing they had so many days granted them for their use, it could not be thought hard and unreasonable that God should claim one day in seven for his own use and service, and oblige them to refrain from work on it: but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest ; from worldly labour, and was typical of spiritual rest here, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 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 shadowy: to observe the sabbath throughout their generations ; so long as the Mosaic dispensation lasted, and their civil polity and church state continued, even until the Messiah came, when all those Jewish shadows, rites, and ceremonies, fled away and disappeared: for a perpetual... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 31:17

It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever ,.... In like sense as the land of Canaan was given them for an everlasting possession; and the covenant of circumcision, and the ordinance of the passover, and the fast on the day of atonement, were for ever; that is, unto the end of the Jewish world and state, at the coming of Christ, when a new world and state of things began, see Genesis 17:8 . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 31:13

My Sabbaths ye shall keep - See Clarke's note on Genesis 2:3 . See Clarke's note on Exodus 20:8 . read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 31:14

Every one that defileth it - By any kind of idolatrous or profane worship. Shall surely be put to death - The magistrates shall examine into the business, and if the accused be found guilty, he shall be stoned to death. Shall be cut off - Because that person who could so far contemn the Sabbath, which was a sign to them of the rest which remained for the people of God, was of course an infidel, and should be cut off from all the privileges and expectations of an Israelite. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 31:16

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. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 31:17

Rested, and was refreshed - God, in condescension to human weakness, applies to himself here what belongs to man. If a man religiously rests on the Sabbath, both his body and soul shall be refreshed; he shall acquire new light and life. read more

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