This is what you must do. One third of you priests and Levites who are on duty during the Sabbath will guard the doors.

This took place to fulfill the Lord’s message delivered through Jeremiah. ¹  The land experienced ²  its sabbatical years; ³  it remained desolate for seventy years, ⁴  as prophesied. ⁵ 

The people from Tyre ¹  who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah – and in Jerusalem, of all places! ² 

Isn’t this the way your ancestors ¹  acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!”

But I warned them and said, ¹  “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” ²  From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. ³ 

The people who do this will be blessed, ¹  the people who commit themselves to obedience, ²  who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, who refrain from doing anything that is wrong. ³ 

As for foreigners who become followers of ¹  the Lord and serve him, who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants – all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, and who are faithful to ²  my covenant –

The Lord says, ‘Be very careful if you value your lives! ¹  Do not carry any loads ²  in through ³  the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

A ¹  man was there who had a withered ²  hand. And they asked Jesus, ³  “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” ⁴  so that they could accuse him.

He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out?

Now ¹  Jesus ²  came to Nazareth, ³  where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue ⁴  on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. ⁵  He ⁶  stood up to read, ⁷ 

Jesus ¹  was going through the grain fields on ²  a Sabbath, ³  and his disciples picked some heads of wheat, ⁴  rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. ⁵ 

Then ¹  Jesus said to them, “I ask you, ²  is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?”

Then ¹  he said to them, “Which of you, if you have a son ²  or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”

For this reason the Jewish leaders ¹  were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

Then some of the Pharisees began to say, ¹  “This man is not from God, because he does not observe ²  the Sabbath.” ³  But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform ⁴  such miraculous signs?” Thus there was a division ⁵  among them.

He ordered them, “This is what you must do. One third of the unit that is on duty during the Sabbath will guard the royal palace.

You say, “When will the new moon festival ¹  be over, ²  so we can sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, ³  so we can open up the grain bins? ⁴  We’re eager ⁵  to sell less for a higher price, ⁶  and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales! ⁷ 

Then ¹  shouldn’t ²  this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan ³  bound for eighteen long ⁴  years, be released from this imprisonment ⁵  on the Sabbath day?”

For the people who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize ¹  him, ²  and they fulfilled the sayings ³  of the prophets that are read every Sabbath by condemning ⁴  him. ⁵