but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
Whatever work could have waited until yesterday or tomorrow is forbidden; but necessity admits exceptions, a judge need not hear cases, yet stopping an ox from goring a neighbor cannot wait. Christ rightly said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, because God requires only what serves piety and the people's welfare.
AI summary
God spoke these words Himself with dreadful pomp, not merely whispered through conscience or providence, but with the authority of Jehovah, the self-existent One. He bound Israel threefold: by His nature as eternal Lord, by covenant as their God, and by His power to reward obedience and punish disobedience.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 20:1-11
The Lord appointed this day as rest for Israel at Sinai, not because it was the seventh day from creation, impossible to keep with exactness across the earth where night is day elsewhere, but because He commanded it to this distinct people. Only work of mercy and necessity is permitted; all servile labor, trade, and handcraft must cease.
AI summary