Exodus 35:1-2

Sabbath Regulations

35:1 Moses assembled the whole community of the Israelites and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. ¹  35:2 In six days ²  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ³  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ⁴  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

[35:1]  ¹ tn Heb “to do them”; this is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

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

[35:2]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.