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.

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.

The Sabbath-Breaker Put to Death

³² While the Israelites were in the wilderness,^(A) a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day.^{(B) 33} Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, ³⁴ and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.^{(C) 35} Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die.^(D) The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.^(E)” ³⁶ So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him^(F) to death,^(G) as the Lord commanded Moses.^(H)

⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,^{(A) 10} and so the Jewish leaders^(B) said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”^(C)

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

²⁴ “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.^(A)

¹⁶ Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.^(A)

²³ Be careful not to forget the covenant^(A) of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol^(B) in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden.

Idolatry Forbidden

¹⁵ You saw no form^(A) of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb^(B) out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,^(C)

⁹ Only be careful,^(A) and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach^(B) them to your children^(C) and to their children after them.