Exodus 31:16
in Exodus 31The Israelites must keep the Sabbath, celebrating it as a permanent covenant for the generations to come.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
KJV
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
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This verse in Exodus 31
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA perpetual covenant - Because it is a sign of this future rest and blessedness, therefore the religious observance of it must be perpetually kept up. The type must continue in force till the antitype come.
This site's exposition
the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath
on Exodus 31:16-17
The sabbath is called a perpetual covenant and a sign for ever, which puts it in the same class as circumcision at Genesis 17:13. The ground given for it is the creation rather than the deliverance, that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested. Deuteronomy 5:15 gives the other ground, the bondage in Egypt and the hand that brought them out, so the same commandment is stated twice on two different reasons.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
12 ); and here it is added to the first part of the ceremonial law, because the observance of the sabbath is indeed the hem and hedge of the whole law; where no conscience is made of that, farewell both godliness and honesty; for, in the moral law, it stands in the midst between the two tables.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
Aholiab of the tribe of Dan. is appointed next to Bezaleel, and partner with him. Hiram, who was the head-workman in the building of Solomon's temple, was also of the tribe of Daniel, 2 Chron. ii,
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath,.... On whom the sabbath of the seventh day was only enjoined, as well as that of the seventh and of the fiftieth years, being all ceremonial and shadowy: to observe the sabbath throughout their generations; so long as the Mosaic dispensation lasted, and their civil polity and church state continued, even until the Messiah came, when all those Jewish shadows, rites, and ceremonies, fled away and disappeared: for a perpetual covenant; just in the same sense as circumcision was, Gen 17:13.
This was to be one of the most lasting tokens of that covenant which was between God and Israel.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
They might suppose that the erection of the tabernacle was a sacred work, and that it would be a high merit, an acceptable tribute, to prosecute the undertaking without the interruption of a day's repose; and therefore the caution here given, at the commencement of the undertaking, was a seasonable admonition.
How the passage was read
On Exodus 31:12-17On Exodus 31:12-17
Why the Sabbath became the identity marker
This is the passage that makes the Sabbath, the seventh day of rest, a covenant sign: “a sign between me and you throughout your generations,” with the death penalty attached. A sign carrying that weight had to be guarded, and over the centuries a detailed fence of rules grew around the short written command. The tradition itself noticed how thin the written base is for so large a structure: the Mishnah, the first great code of Jewish oral law (about AD 200), says the laws of the Sabbath are “like mountains suspended by a hair,” much law hanging on little Scripture (Chagigah 1:8).
Two more facts frame every Sabbath argument in the Gospels. First, the sign was worth dying for: under the persecution of Antiochus (167 BC), pious Jews let themselves be killed rather than fight on the Sabbath, until the Maccabees ruled that self-defense overrides the day (this site's 1 Maccabees study tells that story). Second, the later tradition taught, from this very passage, that the day serves the people and not the reverse: “Shabbat is given into your hands, and you are not given to it” (Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 85b, in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya's circle), and that one Sabbath may be desecrated to save a life so that many Sabbaths may be kept. Every collision Jesus has over this day happens inside that live discussion.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Chagigah 1:8 (“mountains suspended by a hair”) · Yoma 85b (Babylonian Talmud: the Sabbath given into your hands) · 1 Maccabees (this site's study; the Sabbath martyrs)
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְשָׁמְר֥וּ | veshameru | and they will observe | H8104 → | 468 times |
| בְנֵֽי־ | venei- | [the] people of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַשַּׁבָּ֑ת | hashabat | the sabbath | H7676 → | 110 times |
| לַעֲשׂ֧וֹת | laasot | by celebrating | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הַשַּׁבָּ֛ת | hashabat | the sabbath | H7676 → | 110 times |
| לְדֹרֹתָ֖ם | ledorotam | to generations their | H1755 → | 167 times |
| בְּרִ֥ית | berit | a covenant of | H1285 → | 284 times |
| עוֹלָֽם׃ | olam | perpetuity | H5769 → | 438 times |
וְשָׁמְר֥וּand they will observe
veshameruH8104 →468 times
בְנֵֽי־[the] people of
venei-H1121 →4930 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַשַּׁבָּ֑תthe sabbath
hashabatH7676 →110 times
לַעֲשׂ֧וֹתby celebrating
laasotH6213 →2628 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הַשַּׁבָּ֛תthe sabbath
hashabatH7676 →110 times
לְדֹרֹתָ֖םto generations their
ledorotamH1755 →167 times
בְּרִ֥יתa covenant of
beritH1285 →284 times
עוֹלָֽם׃perpetuity
olamH5769 →438 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 9:13I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 1:28
The appearance of the brilliant light all around Him was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the…
- Revelation 4:3
The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne.
- Revelation 10:1
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like pillars of fire.
- Ezekiel 1:28
Through
Genesis 17:11You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
it leads to
- Romans 4:11
And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but…
- Acts 7:8
Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve…
- Romans 4:11
Through
Jeremiah 50:5They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 32:40
I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away…
- Isaiah 35:8
And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it—only those who walk in the Way—and fools will not stray onto it.
- Jeremiah 6:16
This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.…
- Jeremiah 32:40
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
On this verse
On this chapter
About Exodus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.