This is what the Lord says: Listen to my warning! Stop carrying on your trade at Jerusalem’s gates on the Sabbath day.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
- KJV Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
- BSB This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.
- NKJV Thus says the Lord: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
- NASB This is what the Lord says: “Take care for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the Sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem.
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
God warns the people to carry no burdens on the Sabbath. Honoring the day was a visible sign of covenant faithfulness.
Overview
The Lord commands that no commercial loads be carried through Jerusalem's gates on the Sabbath, treating Sabbath rest as a covenant marker. Keeping it set Israel apart and expressed trust that God, not endless labor, provides. The Sabbath ultimately points to the rest believers find in Christ, who is Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 11:28, 12:8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Neh 13:15–21In those days saw I in Judah some men treading wine presses on the Sabbath, bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys; also with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day in which they sold food.
- Num 15:32–36While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
- John 5:9–12Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
- Deut 4:23Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.
- Deut 4:15Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire,
- Deut 11:16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
- Deut 4:9Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children;
- Mark 4:24He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear.
- Josh 23:11Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God.
- Heb 12:15–16looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it;
- Jer 17:22–27neither carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
- Heb 2:1–3Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
- Luke 8:18Be careful therefore how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given; and whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he thinks he has.”
- Prov 4:23Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
- Acts 20:28Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 17:21 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
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