¹⁴ But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.^(A)

⁴ For somewhere it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”^(A)

² On the sixth^[a] day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.^(A)

¹² “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest so that your ox and your donkey may have relief and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.^(A)

²⁹ See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; each of you stay where you are; do not leave your place on the seventh day.” ³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

²¹ But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.^(A)

⁵ Now our flesh is the same as that of our kindred; our children are the same as their children; and yet we are forcing our sons and daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have been ravished; we are powerless, and our fields and vineyards now belong to others.”^(A)

⁴⁴ As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. ⁴⁵ You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you and from their families who are with you who have been born in your land; they may be your property.^{(A) 46} You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.^(B)

Sabbath Reforms Begun

¹⁵ In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens that they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, and I warned them at that time against selling food.^(A)