Jeremiah 17:22

22 You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

Jeremiah 17:22 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 17:22

Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the
sabbath day
Not of dirt and soil only, as some restrain the sense; but of any ware or merchandise, in order to be sold in the city or elsewhere: neither do ye any work;
any servile work, any kind of manufacture, either within doors or without; or exercise any kind of trade, or barter and merchandise, or do any sort of worldly business; nothing but what was of mere necessity, for the preservation of life; see ( Exodus 20:10 ) ; but hallow ye the sabbath day;
or, "sanctify it" ^F2; by separating it from all worldly business, and devoting it to the worship of God in public and private, spending it wholly in acts of religion and piety: as I commanded your fathers;
not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but those that came out of Egypt, to whom, and to their posterity after them, this commandment was enjoined, ( Exodus 20:8-10 ) ( 31:13-17 ) ; so that this was not a novel injunction, but what was commanded from the beginning of their civil and church state; from the time of their coming out of Egypt, and becoming a separate people and nation, under a theocracy, or the government of God himself; being chosen and set apart to be a special, peculiar, and holy people to himself, of which the sanctification of the sabbath was a sign; and was to be observed unto the Messiah's coming, the sum and substance of it, ( Colossians 2:16 Colossians 2:17 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Mtvdq) "sanctificate", Cocceius, Schmidt.

Jeremiah 17:22 In-Context

20 Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, all people of Judah and Jerusalem who enter through these gates.

21 This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

22 You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

23 Yet they would not listen or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and would not listen or receive My discipline.

24 If, however, you listen carefully to Me, says the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and keep the Sabbath day holy, and do no work on it,