Bereshis 2:3

3 Vayevarech Elohim et Yom HaShevi’i, and set it apart as kadosh: because that in it shavat (He had rested) from all His work which bara Elohim (G-d created) and made.

Bereshis 2:3 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 2:3

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it
A day in which he took delight and pleasure, having finished all his works, and resting from them, and looking over them as very good; and so he pronounced this day a good and happy day, and "sanctified" or appointed it in his mind to be a day separated from others, for holy service and worship; as it was with the Jews when they became a body of people, both civil and ecclesiastical: or this is all said by way of prolepsis or anticipation, as many things in this chapter are, many names of countries and rivers, by which being called in the times of Moses, are here given them, though they were not called by them so early, nor till many ages after: and according to Jarchi this passage respects future time, when God "blessed" this day with the manna, which descended on all the days of the week, an omer for a man, and on the sixth day double food; and he "sanctified" it with the manna which did not descend at all on that day: besides, these words may be read in a parenthesis, as containing an account of a fact that was done, not at the beginning of the world, and on the first seventh day of it; but of what had been done in the times of Moses, who wrote this, after the giving of the law of the sabbath; and this being given through his hands to the people of Israel, he takes this opportunity here to insert it, and very pertinently, seeing the reason why God then, in the times of Moses, blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it, was, because he had rested on that day from all his works, ( Exodus 20:11 ) and the same reason is given here, taken plainly out of that law which he had delivered to them:

because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God
created and made;
which shows, that this refers not to the same time when God blessed and hallowed the seventh day, which was done in the times of Moses, but to what had been long before, and was then given as a reason enforcing it; for it is not here said, as in the preceding verse, "he rested", but "had rested", even from the foundation of the world, when his works were finished, as in ( Hebrews 4:3 ) even what "he created to make" F5, as the words may be here rendered; which he created out of nothing, as he did the first matter, in order to make all things out of it, and put them in that order, and bring them to that perfection he did.


FOOTNOTES:

F5 (twvel-arb) "creavit ut faceret", V. L. "creaverat ut faceret", Pagninus, Montanus.

Bereshis 2:3 In-Context

1 Thus HaShomayim and Ha’Aretz were finished, and all the tza’va of them.
2 And on Yom HaShevi’i Elohim finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the Yom HaShevi’i from all His work which He had made.
3 Vayevarech Elohim et Yom HaShevi’i, and set it apart as kadosh: because that in it shavat (He had rested) from all His work which bara Elohim (G-d created) and made.
4 These are the toldot of HaShomayim and of Ha’Aretz when they were created, in the Yom that Hashem Elohim made Eretz v’Shomayim,
5 And every plant of the sadeh was not yet in ha’aretz, and every herb of the sadeh had not yet yitzmach (sprung up, T.N. Moshiach is Tzemach [Zecharyah 3:8]); for Hashem Elohim had not caused it to rain upon ha’aretz, and there was not an adam (man) la’avod (to till, to work) haadamah (the ground).
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.