Speak thou also unto the children of Israel
Notwithstanding all that has been said and ordered concerning
making the tabernacle and all things belonging to it; yet this
was not to be understood to the violation of the sabbath, or the
neglect of that, in which no work was to be done, no, not any
relating to the tabernacle and the vessels of it; and though that
was to be made, and everything belonging to it, as soon as
possible, yet the sabbath was to be observed, and not broken on
that account; and this the people of Israel were told of,
saying; verily,
or "nevertheless" F17,
my sabbaths ye shall keep
not sabbaths of years, as the seventh year and the fiftieth year,
but of weeks, expressed by the plural number, because there are
many of them in course throughout the year, no less than fifty
two; and so the apostle uses the same number, ( Colossians
2:16 ) and so do Heathen writers F18:
for it is a sign between me and you, throughout your
generations;
a token of the covenant between them, of his being their God and
they his people in a peculiar sense; seeing they observed the
same day as a day of rest now, on which he had rested at the
finishing of the works of creation, which other nations of the
world did not observe; of his sanctifying and separating them
from all other people; for this was not a sign between him and
other nations, but between him and the people of Israel only; and
was to be observed throughout their ages, as long as their civil
and church state lasted, but not through others:
that [ye] may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify
you;
had separated and distinguished them from the rest of the nations
of the world; but if this law had been given to all nations, it
could not have been a distinguishing sign of them from others;
nor could it be known hereby that God had separated them to
himself above all people; and this was done that it might be
known, not only by them, for the word "ye" is not in the text,
but by others, the nations of the world, as Jarchi; that they
were a distinct people, having distinct laws from all others, and
particularly this.