Exodus 12:17-18

12:17 So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very ¹  day I brought your regiments ²  out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance. ³  12:18 In the first month, ⁴  from the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat bread made without yeast until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.

Exodus 13:21

13:21 Now the Lord was going before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them in the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, ⁵  so that they could ⁶  travel day or night. ⁷ 

Exodus 31:15

31:15 Six days ⁸  work may be done, ⁹  but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, ¹⁰  holy to the Lord; anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death.

Exodus 35:2

35:2 In six days ¹¹  work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day ¹²  for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. ¹³  Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

---

¹ tn Heb “on the bone of this day.” The expression means “the substance of the day,” the day itself, the very day (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 95).

² tn The word is “armies” or “divisions” (see Exod 6:26 and the note there; cf. also 7:4). The narrative will continue to portray Israel as a mighty army, marching forth in its divisions.

³ tn See Exod 12:14.

⁴ tn “month” has been supplied.

⁵ sn God chose to guide the people with a pillar of cloud in the day and one of fire at night, or, as a pillar of cloud and fire, since they represented his presence. God had already appeared to Moses in the fire of the bush, and so here again is revelation with fire. Whatever the exact nature of these things, they formed direct, visible revelations from God, who was guiding the people in a clear and unambiguous way. Both clouds and fire would again and again represent the presence of God in his power and majesty, guiding and protecting his people, by judging their enemies.

⁶ tn The infinitive construct here indicates the result of these manifestations – “so that they went” or “could go.”

⁷ tn These are adverbial accusatives of time.

⁸ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time, indicating that work may be done for six days out of the week.

⁹ tn The form is a Niphal imperfect; it has the nuance of permission in this sentence, for the sentence is simply saying that the six days are work days – that is when work may be done.

¹⁰ tn The expression is שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן (shabbat shabbaton), “a Sabbath of entire rest,” or better, “a sabbath of complete desisting” (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 404). The second noun, the modifying genitive, is an abstract noun. The repetition provides the superlative idea that complete rest is the order of the day.

¹¹ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

¹² tn The word is קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh, “holiness”). S. R. Driver suggests that the word was transposed, and the line should read: “a sabbath of entire rest, holy to Jehovah” (Exodus, 379). But the word may simply be taken as a substitution for “holy day.”

¹³ sn See on this H. Routtenberg, “The Laws of the Sabbath: Biblical Sources,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 41-43, 99-101, 153-55, 204-6; G. Robinson, “The Idea of Rest in the Old Testament and the Search for the Basic Character of Sabbath,” ZAW 92 (1980): 32-43.