“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.
12. Six days thou shalt do thy work. In this passage the incidental use of the Sabbath is again referred to, although it is no inherent part of its original institution, viz., that by its means the family also and the cattle shall be benefited.
God commanded the land to rest every seventh year to show Israel both His abundance and their dependence on Him alone. This was no mercy to the soil but a test of their obedience in the very matter that touches their purse, whether they would trust His Providence as surely as the sixth day's manna served for two days' meat.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 23:10-19
And in all things that I have said unto you, be circumspect,.... Or observe them, be careful to keep them punctually and constantly, even all that are delivered in this and the preceding chapters: and make no mention of the name of other gods; neither call upon them, nor swear by them, nor make vows to them; and, as little as possible, ever utter their...