Exodus 31:13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep This had been mentioned thrice before, Exodus 16:23; Exodus 20:8; Exodus 23:12; but seems here to be repeated lest they should think the sacred work enjoined in this chapter would warrant their breaking in upon the holy rest of that day. Wherefore the clause had better be translated, Nevertheless my sabbaths shall ye keep; for אךְ ach is often an exceptive particle, and is so rendered here by Arias, Montanus, Le Clerc, Junius, and Tremellius. It is a sign between me and you Some late commentators have quoted Poole here, as follows: “The sabbath is a five-fold sign; 1st, Commemorative of God's creation and dominion over them and all things, to whom they hereby profess their subjection. 2d, Indicative, showing that they were made to be holy, and that their sanctification could be had from none but God, as it here follows and from the observation of God's days and appointments. 3d, Distinctive, whereby they owned themselves to be the Lord's peculiar people, by a religious keeping of those sabbaths, which the rest of the world grossly neglected, and profanely scoffed at. 4th, Prefigurative of that rest which Christ should purchase for them, namely, a rest from the burden of the ceremonial, and the curses and rigours of the moral law, as also from sin and the wrath of God for ever, Heb 4:5 th, Confirmative, both assuring them of God's good will to them, and that, as he blessed the sabbath for their sakes, so he would bless them in the holy use of it, with temporal, spiritual, and everlasting blessings; and assuring God of their standing, and that they would stand to the covenant made between God and them. So that this was a mutual stipulation or ratification of the covenant of grace on both sides.” Certainly the institution of the sabbath was a great instance of God's favour, and a sign that he had separated them from all other people; and their religious observance of it was a great instance of their duty to him. God, by sanctifying this day among them, let them know that he sanctified them, and set them apart for his service, otherwise he would not have revealed to them his holy sabbaths, to be the support of religion among them. The Jews, by observing one day in seven, after six days' labour, testified that they worshipped the God that made the world in six days, and rested the seventh; and so distinguished themselves from other nations, who, having first lost the sabbath, the memorial of the creation, by degrees lost the knowledge of the Creator, and gave the creature the honour due to him alone.