The Israelites must keep the Sabbath, celebrating it as a permanent covenant for the generations to come.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
- KJV Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
- NKJV Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
- NASB So the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a permanent covenant.’
- NLT The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel was to keep the Sabbath as a perpetual covenant across the generations. The Sabbath was an enduring mark of the covenant relationship.
Overview
Calling the Sabbath a 'perpetual covenant' stressed its lasting role as a sign for Israel. It bound successive generations to remember their God and their identity as His people. The enduring rest it signifies is realized in Christ, in whom the people of God find their lasting rest (Hebrews 4:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Jer 50:5They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
- Gen 17:11You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
- Gen 9:13I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 31:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.