Provision of Rest from Work

¹² And Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, ¹³ “And you, speak to the Israelites,^[a] saying, ‘Surely you must keep my Sabbaths, because it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, in order to know that I am Yahweh, who consecrates you. ¹⁴ And you must keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; defilers^[b] of it will surely be put to death, because anyone who does work on it—that person will be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ On six days work can be done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of complete rest,^[c] a holy day^[d] for Yahweh; anyone doing work on the Sabbath day will surely be put to death. ¹⁶ The Israelites^[e] will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath^[f] throughout their generations as a lasting covenant. ¹⁷ It is a sign between me and the Israelites^[g] forever, because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased^[h] and recovered.”^[i]

¹⁸ And when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave to Moses the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with the finger of God.