Nehemiah 9:14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath That holy sabbath day which thou didst bless and sanctify to Adam, commanding him, and in him all his posterity, to observe it, which yet almost all nations have quite forgotten; that day thou didst graciously reveal unto thy people, reviving that ancient law by another particular law respecting it, given to us in the wilderness. The Holy Scriptures speak of the sabbath as a singular gift of God to the Jewish nation, Exodus 16:29; it being a sign between God and them, who sanctified, that is, separated them from all other nations to be his peculiar people, or to be the worshippers of him who created the world in six days and rested in the seventh, while the heathen nations worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, and other creatures.