Deuteronomy 5:14,15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 14, 15. That thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest, as well as thou— Mercy towards men, as well as piety towards God, was, as we learn from this, one great reason for the institution of the sabbath. Here, Moses omits that reason for the institution which is mentioned Exodus 20.; namely, to be a memorial of the creation; and assigns another; namely, that servants and animals may enjoy rest, because this was also one principal design of the institution. For unless men had been obliged to the religious observance of a weekly rest, servants, and especially slaves, would have been in danger of being harassed to death by cruel and imperious masters. To move the Israelites' compassion towards servants, and to make them freely indulge them in a seventh day's rest, their own hard condition in Egypt is suggested to their remembrance. See Exodus 5:4; Exodus 22:21. The clause in the 15th verse, from, and remember to a stretched-out arm, is read by many in a parenthesis; and the therefore, in the next clause, connected with the concluding part of the 14th verse; for as it is not mentioned in the precept delivered by God himself, that the sabbath was instituted as a memorial of their redemption from Egyptian bondage, so it seems better to understand that clause as a motive only to mercy, and a strict observance of the sabbath instituted by God as a day of rest and religious worship. The reason here assigned, says Hallet, is not a reason of God's appointing the seventh day for a sabbath, but merely a reason of his appointing a day of rest. The reason is, because, while the Jews were in Egypt, in a state of slavery, their taskmasters confined them to hard labour from day to day, without any intermission: so that they could not observe the sabbath as they should. When God set them at liberty, and made them masters, he justly expected, that they should use their own liberty better, and deal more mercifully with their slaves and servants, than the Egyptians had dealt with them; and so he required them to permit their servants to rest one day in seven; that is, as often as they themselves did. This was one reason why God appointed a sabbath, or a day of rest from labour. But this reason did not determine, whether this rest should be observed every sixth, every seventh, every eighth day, or what other portion of time should be chosen for this purpose. But the reason why God appointed every seventh day, rather than every sixth, eighth, &c. and why he determined it should be the seventh, or the last of the seven, was, because he finished his works of creation in six days, and rested on the seventh.—If the redemption of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage was a reasonable motive to incline them to mutual clemency and mercy; how much more strongly ought the consideration of our common redemption, through Jesus Christ, to incline us to every act and office of christian love? The learned reader will find a great variety of laws, very similar to those of the Decalogue, in Petit's Leg. Att. so often quoted; an epitome of which excellent work will be found in Parker's Third occasional Annotation on the place.