Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 31:16
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, [for] a perpetual covenant.
16. Wherefore ] The Heb. is simply And.
to observe ] to hold. See on Exo 12:47.
a perpetual (or, as the same Heb. is rendered elsewhere, everlasting) covenant ] An expression frequent in P: Gen 9:16 (of the rainbow), Gen 17:7; Gen 17:13; Gen 17:19 (of circumcision), Lev 24:8, cf. Num 18:19; Num 25:13; also Eze 16:60; Eze 37:26, Jer 50:5, Isa 24:5; Isa 55:3; Isa 61:8, Psa 105:10 . Here, as the context shews (cf. p. 175), the stress lies not on the divine promise, but on Israel’s obligation to observe the terms on which the covenant is based.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
16, 17. The main thoughts of vv. 13 15 repeated, and emphasized, in P’s manner: cf. on Exo 6:27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 16. A perpetual covenant.] Because it is a sign of this future rest and blessedness, therefore the religious observance of it must be perpetually kept up. The type must continue in force till the antitype come.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Or, shall keep the sabbath by observing or celebrating the sabbath, i. e. by observing or celebrating it, the antecedent being put for the relative, as is frequently done. So here is another most emphatical repetition to oblige us to the greater caution and diligence in this great duty, and to show what stress God lays upon it, who hath therefore placed this in the midst of the commands of the decalogue, as the heart which gives life and rigour to all the rest. Or it may be rendered thus; shall observe the day of rest to celebrate the sabbath; and so the phrase is like that in the fourth command, Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. So here, Observe the sabbath. i.e. watch its coming and approach, consider attentively the nature and use of it, and that not as a matter of idle speculation, but of serious practice; or, so that you may do or celebrate the sabbath, i.e. perform all the duties of it. Or thus, shall observe the sabbath, to make it a sabbath or day of rest, and that no idle or carnal rest, but a rest, holy to the Lord, as it is called in the foregoing verse.
For a perpetual covenant, or, by a perpetual covenant, or, it is a perpetual covenant, i. e. condition or part of that agreement made between me and them. They have solemnly covenanted or promised that they will do all that I commanded them, Exo 24:7,8, among which this is a chief branch; and I have covenanted to bless and sanctify them in so doing. And this word perpetual, as also the word for ever, being added to it in the next verse, may intimate that this hath a longer perpetuity than the ceremonies, to which this phrase is sometimes ascribed, the rather because the reason of this perpetuity given in the next verse is such as hath its force not only till Christ, but even till the end of the world, and it is fit and just that men should retain this monument or memorial of the worlds creation even till its dissolution.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath,…. 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, Ge 17:13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Exo 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, [for] a perpetual covenant.
Ver. 16. For a perpetual covenant. ] So the Sabbath is called by way of eminency; as if nothing of God’s covenant were kept, if this were not Philo Judaeus saith, The fourth commandment is a famous precept, and profitable to excite all kind of virtue and piety.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a perpetual covenant: Gen 9:13, Gen 17:11, Jer 50:5
Reciprocal: Gen 17:8 – everlasting Exo 23:12 – Six days