blessed
The Hebrew word for "blessed" is "barak," which means to endow with power for success, prosperity, and longevity. By blessing the seventh day, God imbues it with a special significance and purpose. This act of blessing is not just a declaration but an impartation of divine favor and grace. It sets the seventh day apart as a day of divine favor, reflecting God's goodness and generosity towards His creation.

the seventh day
The "seventh day" is significant as it marks the completion of the creation week. In Hebrew culture, the number seven symbolizes completeness and perfection. The seventh day is thus a culmination of God's creative work, a day that stands apart from the others. It is a reminder of the divine order and the rhythm of work and rest established by God Himself.

and sanctified it
The term "sanctified" comes from the Hebrew word "qadash," meaning to set apart as holy. By sanctifying the seventh day, God designates it as sacred, distinct from the other days. This sanctification is a divine act that confers holiness upon the day, making it a time for rest and spiritual reflection. It foreshadows the Sabbath, a day of rest and worship, which becomes a central aspect of Jewish and Christian practice.

because on that day He rested
The phrase "He rested" uses the Hebrew word "shabath," which means to cease or desist. God's rest is not due to fatigue but is a cessation from creative activity, signifying completion and satisfaction in His work. This divine rest sets a pattern for humanity, emphasizing the importance of rest and reflection in the rhythm of life. It is a model for the Sabbath rest, a time to pause and acknowledge God's provision and sovereignty.

from all the work of creation
This phrase underscores the totality and completeness of God's creative activity. The "work of creation" refers to the entire cosmos, brought into existence by God's command. It highlights the meticulous and purposeful nature of God's work, which is now complete and perfect. This completion invites humanity to enter into God's rest, recognizing the sufficiency and perfection of His creation.

that He had accomplished
The word "accomplished" signifies the fulfillment and realization of God's creative plan. It reflects the Hebrew concept of "asah," meaning to do or make, emphasizing the intentionality and effectiveness of God's actions. This accomplishment is a testament to God's faithfulness and power, inviting believers to trust in His ongoing work in the world and in their lives. It is a call to rest in the assurance of God's completed work, both in creation and in redemption.

Which God created and made.--Literally, created to make. God created the world in order to make and form and fashion it. There is a work of completion which follows upon creation, and this may still be going on, and be perfected only when there is a new heaven and a new earth.

THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND OF THE EARTH (Genesis 2:4 to Genesis 4:26).

After the hymn of creation the rest of the Book of Genesis is divided into ten sections of very unequal length, called toldoth, translated by the LXX. the Book of Genesis, or generation, whence the title given by St. Matthew to his Gospel. (See note on Genesis 5:1.) This title, however, does not mean a genealogical list of a person's ancestors, but the register of his posterity. As applied to the heavens and the earth, it signifies the history of what followed upon their creation. . . .

1. That it was thereby declared to be the special object of the Divine favor.

2. That it was thenceforth to be a day or epoch of blessing for his creation. And -

3. That it was to be invested with a permanence which did not belong to the other six days - every one of which passed away and gave place to a successor. And sanctified it. Literally, declared it holy, or set it apart for holy purposes. As afterwards Mount Sinai was sanctified (Exodus 19:23), or, for the time being, invested with a sacred character as the residence of God; and Aaron and his sons were sanctified, or consecrated to the priestly office (Exodus 29:44); and the year of Jubilee was sanctified, or devoted to the purposes of religion (Leviticus 25:10), so here was the seventh day sanctified, or instituted in the interests of holiness, and as such proclaimed to be a holy day. Because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made. Literally, created to make, the exact import of which has been variously explained. The "ω΅ν ἤρξατο ὁ θεός ποιῆσαι of the LXX. is obviously incorrect. Calvin, Ainsworth, Bush, et alii take the second verb emphatice, as intensifying the action of the first, and conveying the idea of a perfect creation. Kalisch, Alford, and others explain the second as epexegetic of the first, as in the similar phrases, "spoke, saying, literally, spoke to speak" (Exodus 6:10), and "labored to do" (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Onkelos, the Vulgate (quod Dens creavit ut faceret), Calvin, Tayler Lewis, etc. understand the infinitive in a relic sense, as expressive of the purpose for which the heavens and the earth were at first created, viz., that by the six days' work they might be fashioned into a cosmos. It has been observed that the usual concluding formula is not appended to the record of the seventh day, and the reason has perhaps been declared by Augustine: "Dies autem septimus sine vespera eat, nee habet occasum, quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam" ('Confess.,' 13:36). But now what was this seventh day which received Elohim's benediction? On the principle of interpretation applied to the creative days, this must be regarded as a period of indefinite duration, compounding to the human era of both Scripture and geology. But other Scriptures (Exodus 20:8; Exodus 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:12, etc.) show that the Hebrews were enjoined by God to observe a seventh day rest in imitation of himself. There are also indications that sabbatic observance was not unknown to the patriarchs (Genesis 29:27, 28), to the antediluvians (Genesis 8:6-12), and to Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:3). Profane history likewise vouches for the veracity of the statement of Josephus, that "there is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come" ('Contra Apionem,' 2:40). The ancient Persians, Indians, and Germans esteemed the number seven as sacred. By the Greeks and Phoenicians a sacred character was ascribed to the seventh day. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and other nations of antiquity were acquainted with the hebdomadal division of time. Travelers have detected traces of it among the African and American aborigines. To account for its existence among nations so widely apart, both chronologically and geographically, recourse has been had to some violent hypotheses; as, e.g., to the number of the primary planets known to the ancients (Humboldt), the division of a lunar month into four nearly equal periods of seven days (Ideler, Baden Powell, etc.), Jewish example (Josephus). Its true genesis, however, must be sought for in the primitive observance of a seventh day rest in accordance with Divine appointment. Precisely as we reason that the early and widespread prevalence of sacrifice can only be explained by an authoritative revelation to the first parents of the human family of such a mode of worship, so do we conclude that a seventh day sabbath must have been prescribed to man in Eden. The question then arises, Is this sabbath also referred to in the Mosaic record of the seventh day? The popular Belief is that the institution of the weekly sabbath alone is the subject spoken of in the opening verses of the present chapter; and the language of Exodus 20:11 may at first sight appear to warrant this conclusion. A more careful consideration of the phraseology employed by Moses, how ever, shows that in the mind of the Hebrew lawgiver there existed a distinction between God's seventh day and man's sabbath, and that, instead of identifying the two, he meant to teach that the first was the reason of the second; as thus - "In six days God made.... and rested on the seventh day; where fore God blessed the (weekly) sabbath day, and hallowed it." Here it is commonly assumed that the words are exactly parallel to those in Genesis 2:3, and that the sabbath in Exodus corresponds to the seventh day of Genesis. But this is open to debate. The seventh day which God blessed in Eden was the first day of human life, and not the seventh day; and it is certain that God did not rest from his labors on man's seventh day, but on man's first. We feel inclined then to hold with Luther that in Genesis 2:3 Moses says nothing about man's day, and that the seventh day which received the Divine benediction was God's own great aeonian period of sabbatic rest. At the same time, for the reasons above specified, believing that a weekly sabbath was pre scribed to man from the beginning, we have no difficulty in assenting to the words of Tayler Lewis: "'And God blessed the seventh day.' Which seventh day, the greater or the less, the Divine or the human, the aeonian or the astronomical? Both, is the easy answer; both, as commencing at the same time, so far as the one connects with astronomical time; both, as the greater including the less; both, as being (the one as represented, the other as typically representing) the same essence and idea." It does not appear necessary to refute the idea that the weekly sabbath had no existence till the giving of the law, and that it is only here proleptically referred to by Moses. In addition to the above-mentioned historical testimonies to the antiquity of the Sabbath, the Fifth Tablet in the Chaldean Creation Series, after referring to the fourth day's work, proceeds: - . . .

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