²¹ This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath^(A) day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. 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.^{(B) 23} Yet they did not listen or pay attention;^(C) they were stiff-necked^(D) and would not listen or respond to discipline.^{(E) 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^(F) by not doing any work on it, ²⁵ then kings who sit on David’s throne^(G) will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.^{(H) 26} People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev,^(I) bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. ²⁷ But if you do not obey^(J) me to keep the Sabbath^(K) 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^(L) in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’”^(M)

⁴ For this is what the Lord says:

Psalm 92^[a]

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

¹⁰ On the Lord’s Day^(A) I was in the Spirit,^(B) and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,^(C)

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.