²⁰ Keep my Sabbaths^(A) holy, that they may be a sign^(B) between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.^(C)”

²² Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.^(A)

¹² Also I gave them my Sabbaths^(A) as a sign^(B) between us,^(C) so they would know that I the Lord made them holy.^(D)

²⁴ “‘In any dispute, the priests are to serve as judges^(A) and decide it according to my ordinances. They are to keep my laws and my decrees for all my appointed festivals,^(B) and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.^(C)

²⁷ But if you do not obey^(A) me to keep the Sabbath^(B) day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire^(C) in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’”^(D)

²⁴ But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy^(A) by not doing any work on it,

¹⁵ In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath.^(A) Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. ¹⁶ People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath^(B) to the people of Judah. ¹⁷ I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? ¹⁸ Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city?^(C) Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”^(D)

¹⁹ When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath,^(E) I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. ²¹ But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. ²² Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Remember^(F) me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.

¹³ “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths.^(A) This will be a sign^(B) between me and you for the generations to come,^(C) so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.^(D)

¹⁴ “‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death;^(E) those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. ¹⁵ For six days work^(F) is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest,^(G) holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. ¹⁶ The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath,^(H) celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. ¹⁷ It will be a sign^(I) between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.^(J)’”^(K)