Exodus 20:9-11

20:9 For six days ¹  you may labor ²  and do all your work, ³  20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it ⁴  you shall not do any work, you, ⁵  or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. ⁶  20:11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Deuteronomy 5:13

5:13 You are to work and do all your tasks in six days,

Ezekiel 46:1

The Prince’s Offerings

46:1 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: The gate of the inner court that faces east ⁷  will be closed six working days, but on the Sabbath day it will be opened and on the day of the new moon it will be opened.

Luke 13:14

13:14 But the president of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ⁸  should be done! ⁹  So come ¹⁰  and be healed on those days, and not on the Sabbath day.”

[20:9]  ¹ tn The text has simply “six days,” but this is an adverbial accusative of time, answering how long they were to work (GKC 374 §118.k).

[20:9]  ² tn The imperfect tense has traditionally been rendered as a commandment, “you will labor.” But the point of this commandment is the prohibition of work on the seventh day. The permission nuance of the imperfect works well here.

[20:9]  ³ tn This is the occupation, or business of the work week.

[20:10]  ⁴ tn The phrase “on it” has been supplied for clarity.

[20:10]  ⁵ sn The wife is omitted in the list, not that she was considered unimportant, nor that she was excluded from the rest, but rather in reflecting her high status. She was not man’s servant, not lesser than the man, but included with the man as an equal before God. The “you” of the commandments is addressed to the Israelites individually, male and female, just as God in the Garden of Eden held both the man and the woman responsible for their individual sins (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 567-68).

[20:10]  ⁶ sn The Sabbath day was the sign of the Sinaitic Covenant. It required Israel to cease from ordinary labors and devote the day to God. It required Israel to enter into the life of God, to share his Sabbath. It gave them a chance to recall the work of the Creator. But in the NT the apostolic teaching for the Church does not make one day holier than another, but calls for the entire life to be sanctified to God. This teaching is an application of the meaning of entering into the Sabbath of God. The book of Hebrews declares that those who believe in Christ cease from their works and enter into his Sabbath rest. For a Christian keeping Saturday holy is not a requirement from the NT; it may be a good and valuable thing to have a day of rest and refreshment, but it is not a binding law for the Church. The principle of setting aside time to worship and serve the Lord has been carried forward, but the strict regulations have not.

[46:1]  ⁷ sn The east gate of the outer court was permanently closed (Ezek 44:2).

[13:14]  ⁸ sn The irony is that Jesus’ “work” consisted of merely touching the woman. There is no sense of joy that eighteen years of suffering was reversed with his touch.

[13:14]  ⁹ tn Grk “on which it is necessary to work.” This has been simplified in the translation.

[13:14]  ¹⁰ tn The participle ἐρχόμενοι (ercomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.