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.

Exodus 23:12

23:12 For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, in order that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant’s son and any hired help ⁷  may refresh themselves. ⁸ 

Exodus 35:2

35:2 In six days ⁹  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ¹⁰  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ¹¹  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

5:12 Be careful to observe ¹²  the Sabbath day just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 5:13 You are to work and do all your tasks in six days, 5:14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath ¹³  of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, ¹⁴  so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest. 5:15 Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power. ¹⁵  That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe ¹⁶  the Sabbath day.

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 ¹⁷  should be done! ¹⁸  So come ¹⁹  and be healed on those days, and not on the Sabbath day.”

Luke 23:56

23:56 Then ²⁰  they returned and prepared aromatic spices ²¹  and perfumes. ²² 

On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. ²³ 

[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.

[23:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “alien,” or “resident foreigner.” Such an individual would have traveled out of need and depended on the goodwill of the people around him. The rendering “hired help” assumes that the foreigner is mentioned in this context because he is working for an Israelite and will benefit from the Sabbath rest, along with his employer.

[23:12]  ⁸ tn The verb is וְיִּנָּפֵשׁ (vÿyyinnafesh); it is related to the word usually translated “soul” or “life.”

[35:2]  ⁹ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[35:2]  ¹⁰ tn The word is קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holiness”). S. R. Driver suggests that the word was transposed, and the line should read: “a sabbath of entire rest, holy to Jehovah” (Exodus, 379). But the word may simply be taken as a substitution for “holy day.”

[35:2]  ¹¹ sn See on this H. Routtenberg, “The Laws of the Sabbath: Biblical Sources,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 41-43, 99-101, 153-55, 204-6; G. Robinson, “The Idea of Rest in the Old Testament and the Search for the Basic Character of Sabbath,” ZAW 92 (1980): 32-43.

[5:12]  ¹² tn Heb “to make holy,” that is, to put to special use, in this case, to sacred purposes (cf. vv. 13-15).

[5:14]  ¹³ tn There is some degree of paronomasia (wordplay) here: “the seventh (הַשְּׁבִיעִי, hashÿvi’i) day is the Sabbath (שַׁבָּת, shabbat).” Otherwise, the words have nothing in common, since “Sabbath” is derived from the verb שָׁבַת (shavat, “to cease”).

[5:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in your gates”; NRSV, CEV “in your towns”; TEV “in your country.”

[5:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “by a strong hand and an outstretched arm,” the hand and arm symbolizing divine activity and strength. Cf. NLT “with amazing power and mighty deeds.”

[5:15]  ¹⁶ tn Or “keep” (so KJV, NRSV).

[13:14]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “on which it is necessary to work.” This has been simplified in the translation.

[13:14]  ¹⁹ tn The participle ἐρχόμενοι (ercomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[23:56]  ²⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[23:56]  ²¹ tn On this term see BDAG 140-41 s.v. ἄρωμα. The Jews did not practice embalming, so these preparations were used to cover the stench of decay and slow decomposition. The women planned to return and anoint the body. But that would have to wait until after the Sabbath.

[23:56]  ²² tn Or “ointments.” This was another type of perfumed oil.

[23:56]  ²³ sn According to the commandment. These women are portrayed as pious, faithful to the law in observing the Sabbath.