Exodus 31:16

16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.

Exodus 31:16 in Other Translations

16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.

16 The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time.

16 The Israelites will keep the Sabbath, observe Sabbath-keeping down through the generations, as a standing covenant.

16 The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a perpetual 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 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.

15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.

16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.

17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

18 When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

Cross References

• 1. S Exodus 20:8