SABBATH. The narrative in the book of Genesis of the creation of the world in six days is followed by these words: And on the seventh day God ended his work which lie had made; and he rusted on the seventh day from all his work which ho had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and set it apart; because that in it ho had rested from all his work which God created and made." (Gen. ii. 2, 3,) These words seem to imply that the seventh day he to be observed by all the rational creatures of God as a day of worship iu acknowledge meat of their Creator, and as a day of rest in Imitation of his rest after the creation. Wo find no further mention of this ordinance during the patriarchal period, though some have supposed that there is a reference to it in the interval, of wren days observed by Noah in send ing the raven and the (love out of the ark. ((hen. viii.) It in next met with at the time of the Exodus, under the name of the Sabbath (11;1;2, from r9ti,, fo cease from labour), where rest from labour ie the peculiar character attached to the day. (Exod. xvi.) In the ransage referred to, it appears to be spoken of as an institution already known, but this has been disputed. It was still more expressly en joined upon the Jews at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, when the reason assigned in Genesis for its institution was repeated. (Exod. xx. 8.110 The Meanie laws respecting the Sabbath are contained in the following pa sages, besides the two just quoted : Exod. xxiii. 12; xxxi. 12.17; xxxiv. 21; xxxv. 1-3; Levit. xix. 3, 30; xxiii. 3; xxvi. 2; Numb. xv. 32-30; xxviii. 9, 10; Dent. v. 12.15. It was a day of divine worship, though as to what that worship consisted in, we only know that there was to be an additional sacrifice besides the daily one, and a holy convocation of the peoplo. This part of the institution was intended, like many others of the Mosaic laws, to keep in the remembrance of the people their allegiance to the true God, and to distinguish them from the idolatrous nations among whom they dwelt. (Exod. xxxi. 13, 17.) Its other feature was rest from labour, which was to be observed not only by every Israelite, but by resident strangers and beasts of burden. This rest had partly a religious character, as it was an acknowledgment of belief in the God who created the heavens and earth in six days, and rested on the seventh. For this reason a wilful violation of the rest of the Sabbath was punished by death, as it was an act of rebellion against God. A second object of this rest was, of course, to afford leisure for the reli gious services of the day ; and a third was the refreshment of man aud beast after the labour of the week. (Exod. xxiii. 12.) Moses does not
however define the cleaning of the term work in the Law ; but it is evident from several passages in the Pentateuch that it was peculiarly all work of a servile character that was forbidden. Thus there is a special commandment to rest on the Sabbath in seed-time and harvest, as well as at other seasons (Exod. 21), and there were prohibi tions against kindling fire (Exod. xxxv. 4) or preparing food on the Sabbath (Exod. xvi. 5, 22-30); the people were severely reprimanded by Moses for going out of their tents to gather manna (Exod. ibid.), and a man was put to death by the express command of God for gathering sticks on the Sabbath. (Numb. xv. 32-36.) This peculiar feature of the Jewish Sabbath was intended constantly to remind the people of their deliverance from their servile condition in the land of Egypt, as Moses states in his rehearsal of the Law, where the reason annexed to the fourth commandment in Exodus is omitted, and its place is supplied by the following words : " And remember that thou west a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm ; therefore the Lord thy Cod commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." (Dent. v. 15.) All bodily labour which was necessary for the service of Cod formed an exception to the statute. Thus the sacrifices were doubled on that day, and the animals had to be killed ; the per petual fire on the altar of burnt offering was to be supplied with wood every day; and a child was circumcised on the Sabbath, if that day happened to be the eighth from its birth. (Numb. xxviii. 3-10 ; Lovit. vi. 8-13; Matt. xii. 5 ; John vii. 22-23.) It seems to be satis factorily proved by Michaelis that the unwillingness to fight on the Sabbath, which we meet with in the later periods of the Jewish history, was never felt before the Babylonish captivity. The general spirit of the Jewish law concerning the Sabbath may be gathered from the following words of Isaiah (chap. lviii. 13) :—" If thou restrain thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy feast of the Lord honour able; and shalt honour him (or it), not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:" then follows a promise. The Sabbath was reckoned, like the Jewish day in general, from sunset to sunset.