Exodus 31:16

16 and the sons of Israel have observed the sabbath; to keep the sabbath to their generations [is] a covenant age-during,

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 and ye have kept the sabbath, for it [is] holy to you, he who is polluting it is certainly put to death -- for any who doeth work in it -- that person hath even been cut off from the midst of his people.
15 `Six days is work done, and in the seventh day [is] a sabbath of holy rest to Jehovah; any who doeth work in the sabbath-day is certainly put to death,
16 and the sons of Israel have observed the sabbath; to keep the sabbath to their generations [is] a covenant age-during,
17 between Me and the sons of Israel it [is] a sign -- to the age; for six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, and in the seventh day He hath ceased, and is refreshed.'
18 And He giveth unto Moses, when He finisheth speaking with him in mount Sinai, two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written by the finger of God.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.