Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
The sabbath is the hem and hedge of the whole law: where no conscience is made of it, farewell both godliness and honesty. God repeats it here with jealous care because the urgency of tabernacle-work might tempt them to break it, but even sacred work must yield to sabbath rest.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 31:12-18
Six days may work be done;.... Allowed to be done by an Israelite, if he would; for this is not a command to work, but a permission or grant to do it; and therefore, seeing they had so many days granted them for their use, it could not be thought hard and unreasonable that God should claim one day in seven for his own use...
The command must be repeated here because the thought could easily arise that so great a work in honour of Jehovah might excuse them from keeping the Sabbath. But it is a sign between God and Israel for all generations, a holy thing whose desecration brings death, as a breach of covenant.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 31:12-17