Exodus 31:16

16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, [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 to you. Every one that profaneth it shall surely be put to death: for whoever doeth [any] work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

15 Six days may work be done, but in the seventh [is] the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whoever doeth [any] work in the sabbath-day, he shall surely be put to death.

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

17 [It is] a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

18 And to Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, he gave two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.