Exodus 31:16

16 The {Israelites} will pay attention to the Sabbath [in order] to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations [as] a lasting covenant.

Exodus 31:16 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 31:16

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath,
&c.] 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, ( Genesis 17:13 ) .

Exodus 31:16 In-Context

14 And you must keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; defilers of it will surely be put to death, because anyone who does work on it--that person will be cut off from among his people.

15 [On] six days work can be done, and on the seventh {is a Sabbath of complete rest}, {a holy day} for Yahweh; anyone doing work on the Sabbath day will surely be put to death.

16 The {Israelites} will pay attention to the Sabbath [in order] to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations [as] a lasting covenant.

17 It [is] a sign between me and the {Israelites} forever, because [in] six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased and recovered."

18 And when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave to Moses the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with the finger of God.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [b]. Or "keep the Sabbath to do/observe the Sabbath"