Exodus 31:16

16 Therefore the sons of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their ages for 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 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; those that defile it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

15 Six days shall work be done; but the seventh, the sabbath of rest, shall be holy to the LORD; whoever does any work in the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

16 Therefore the sons of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their ages for a perpetual covenant.

17 It is a sign between me and the sons of Israel for ever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

18 And he gave unto Moses, when he finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.