Exodus 31:16

Christian Standard Bible ®

The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a permanent covenant.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Therefore the children of Yisra'el shall keep the Shabbat, to observe the Shabbat throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

King James Version
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

Lexham English Bible
The Israelites will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations as a lasting covenant.

New Century Version
The Israelites must remember the Sabbath day as an agreement between them and me that will continue from now on.

New English Translation
The Israelites must keep the Sabbath by observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

Amplified Bible
'So the Israelites shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.'

New American Standard Bible
'So the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a permanent covenant.'

Geneva Bible (1587)
Wherfore the children of Israel shal keepe the Sabbath, that they may obserue the rest throughout their generations for an euerlasting couenant.

Legacy Standard Bible
So the sons of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant.'

Contemporary English Version
Every generation of Israelites must respect the Sabbath.

Complete Jewish Bible
The people of Isra'el are to keep the Shabbat, to observe Shabbat through all their generations as a perpetual covenant.

Darby Translation
And the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations—[it is] an everlasting covenant.

Easy-to-Read Version
The Israelites must remember the Sabbath and make it a special day. They must continue to do this forever. It is an agreement between them and me that will continue forever.

English Standard Version
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.

George Lamsa Translation
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath to the LORD to observe the sabbath throughout all their generations for a perpetual covenant.

Good News Translation
The people of Israel are to keep this day as a sign of the covenant.

Literal Translation
And the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to do the Sabbath for their generations; it is a never ending covenant.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore shal the children of Israel kepe the Sabbath, that they maye kepe it also amonge their posterities for an euerlastynge couenaunt.

American Standard Version
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

Bible in Basic English
And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy, from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wherefore let the children of Israel kepe the Sabboth, that they obserue the Sabboth throughout their generations: it is a perpetuall couenaunt.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

King James Version (1611)
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keepe the Sabbath, to obserue the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetuall couenant.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the children of Israel shall keep the sabbaths, to observe them throughout their generations.

English Revised Version
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

Berean Standard Bible
The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it as a lasting covenant for the generations to come.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The sones of Israel kepe sabat, and halewe it in her generaciouns;

Young's Literal Translation
and the sons of Israel have observed the sabbath; to keep the sabbath to their generations [is] a covenant age-during,

Update Bible Version
Therefore the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

Webster's Bible Translation
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, [for] a perpetual covenant.

World English Bible
Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

New King James Version
Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

New Living Translation
The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time.

New Life Bible
So the people of Israel will keep the Day of Rest as a special day for all their people for all time, as an agreement forever.'

New Revised Standard
Therefore the Israelites shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Therefore shall the sons of Israel keep the sabbath, - by making it a Day of Rest to your generations, as an age-abiding covenant:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let the children of Israel keep the sabbath, and celebrate it in their generations. It is an everlasting covenant

Revised Standard Version
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.'

Contextual Overview

¹²The Lord said to Moses: ¹³“Tell the Israelites: You must observe my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you will know that I am the Lord who consecrates you. ¹⁴Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. ¹⁵Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. ¹⁶The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a permanent covenant. ¹⁷It is a sign forever between me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” ¹⁸When he finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a perpetual covenant: Genesis 9:13, Genesis 17:11, Jeremiah 50:5

Reciprocal: Genesis 17:8 - everlasting Exodus 23:12 - Six days

Cross-References

Genesis 31:9
God has taken away your father’s herds and given them to me.

Psalms 45:10
Listen, daughter, pay attention and consider:forget your people and your father’s house,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath,.... On whom the sabbath of the seventh day was only enjoined, as well as that of the seventh and of the fiftieth years, being all ceremonial and shadowy:

to observe the sabbath throughout their generations; so long as the Mosaic dispensation lasted, and their civil polity and church state continued, even until the Messiah came, when all those Jewish shadows, rites, and ceremonies, fled away and disappeared,

for a perpetual covenant; just in the same sense as circumcision was, Genesis 17:13.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The penal law of the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2-3. In the fourth commandment the injunction to observe the seventh day is addressed to the conscience of the people (see Exodus 20:8 note): in this place, the object is to declare an infraction of the commandment to be a capital offence. The two passages stand in a relation to each other similar to that between Leviticus 18:0, Leviticus 19:0, and Leviticus 20:0. It seems likely that the penal edict was especially introduced as a caution in reference to the construction of the tabernacle, lest the people, in their zeal to carry on the work, should be tempted to break the divine law for the observance of the day.

Exodus 31:14

See Numbers 15:32-36. The distinction between the meaning of the two expressions, “to be cut off from the people”, and “to be put to death”, is here indicated. He who was cut off from the people had, by his offence, put himself out of the terms of the covenant, and was an outlaw. On such, and on such alone, when the offence was one which affected the well-being of the nation, as it was in this case, death could be inflicted by the public authority.

Exodus 31:17

Was refreshed - Literally, “he took breath”. Compare Exodus 23:12; 2 Samuel 16:14. The application of the word to the Creator, which occurs nowhere else, is remarkable.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 31:16. A perpetual covenant. — Because it is a sign of this future rest and blessedness, therefore the religious observance of it must be perpetually kept up. The type must continue in force till the antitype come.