The concept of the Sabbath is deeply rooted in the biblical narrative, serving as a day of rest and worship. The Sabbath is first introduced in the creation account and is later codified in the Mosaic Law. Various scriptures throughout the Bible provide insights into its significance, observance, and spiritual implications.

Creation and the Sabbath

The Sabbath is established in the creation narrative, where God rests on the seventh day after completing His work. Genesis 2:2-3 states, "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished."

Sabbath in the Ten Commandments

The Sabbath is enshrined in the Ten Commandments, highlighting its importance in the covenant between God and Israel. Exodus 20:8-11 commands, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the foreigner within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy."

Sabbath as a Sign

The Sabbath serves as a sign of the covenant between God and His people. In Exodus 31:13 , God instructs Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.'"

Sabbath Observance and Regulations

The observance of the Sabbath is marked by rest and refraining from work. Leviticus 23:3 reiterates, "For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD."

Prophetic Insights on the Sabbath

The prophets often addressed the spiritual and ethical dimensions of the Sabbath. Isaiah 58:13-14 emphasizes the blessings of honoring the Sabbath: "If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words, then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Sabbath in the New Testament

In the New Testament, Jesus addresses the Sabbath, emphasizing its intended purpose. Mark 2:27-28 records Jesus saying, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." This highlights the Sabbath's role in serving humanity's need for rest and spiritual renewal.

Sabbath as a Foreshadowing

The Sabbath is also seen as a foreshadowing of the ultimate rest found in Christ. Hebrews 4:9-10 states, "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His."

These scriptures collectively underscore the multifaceted nature of the Sabbath, encompassing creation, covenant, rest, worship, and eschatological hope.Genesis 2:2,3
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
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Exodus 16:5,23-30
And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
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Exodus 20:8-11
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
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Exodus 23:12
Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest: that your ox and your ass may rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
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Exodus 31:13-17
Speak you also to the children of Israel, saying, Truly my sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the LORD that does sanctify you.
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Exodus 34:21
Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in ripening time and in harvest you shall rest.
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Exodus 35:2,3
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whoever does work therein shall be put to death.
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Leviticus 16:29-31
And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you:
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Leviticus 19:3,30
You shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.
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Leviticus 23:1-3,27-32
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
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Leviticus 24:8
Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.
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Leviticus 26:2,34,35
You shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
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Numbers 15:32-36
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks on the sabbath day.
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Numbers 28:9,10
And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof:
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Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God has commanded you.
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2 Kings 4:23
And he said, Why will you go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
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1 Chronicles 9:32
And other of their brothers, of the sons of the Kohathites, were over the show bread, to prepare it every sabbath.
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2 Chronicles 36:21
To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill three score and ten years.
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Nehemiah 9:13,14
You came down also on mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
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Nehemiah 10:31
And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.
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Nehemiah 13:15-22
In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals.
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Psalm 92:1-15
IT IS A GOOD THING TO GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, AND TO SING PRAISES UNTO THY NAME, O MOST HIGH:
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Psalm 118:24
This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
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Isaiah 1:13
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
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Isaiah 56:2,4-7
Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that lays hold on it; that keeps the sabbath from polluting it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
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Isaiah 58:13,14
If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
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Isaiah 66:23
And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, said the LORD.
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Jeremiah 17:21,22,24-27
Thus said the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
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Lamentations 1:7
Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
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Lamentations 2:6
And he has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he has destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD has caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
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Ezekiel 20:12,13,16,20,21,24
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.
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Ezekiel 22:8
You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my sabbaths.
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Ezekiel 23:38
Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.
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Ezekiel 44:24
And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.
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Ezekiel 46:1,3
Thus said the Lord GOD; The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
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Hosea 2:11
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
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Amos 8:5
Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
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Matthew 12:1-8,10-12
At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat.
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Matthew 24:20
But pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
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Mark 2:27,28
And he said to them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
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Mark 6:2
And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From where has this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given to him, that even such mighty works are worked by his hands?
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Mark 16:1
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
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Luke 4:16,31
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
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Luke 6:1-10
And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
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Luke 13:10-17
And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
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Luke 14:1-6
And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
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Luke 23:54,56
And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
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John 5:5-14
And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
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John 7:21-24
Jesus answered and said to them, I have done one work, and you all marvel.
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John 9:1-34
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
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John 19:31
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) sought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
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Acts 13:14,27,42,44
But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.
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Acts 15:21
For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
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Acts 16:13
And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spoke to the women which resorted thither.
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Acts 17:2
And Paul, as his manner was, went in to them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
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Acts 18:4
And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
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Colossians 2:16
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
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Hebrews 4:4,9
For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
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What day is the Sabbath, Saturday or Sunday? Do Christians have to observe the Sabbath day? | GotQuestions.org

How is Jesus our Sabbath Rest? | GotQuestions.org

What does it mean that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath? | GotQuestions.org

Sabbath: Dictionary and Thesaurus | Clyx.com

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