Genesis 2:3
New International Version
Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

New Living Translation
And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

English Standard Version
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Berean Standard Bible
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.

King James Bible
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

New King James Version
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

New American Standard Bible
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

NASB 1995
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

NASB 1977
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Legacy Standard Bible
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created in making it.

Amplified Bible
So God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it [as His own, that is, set it apart as holy from other days], because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and done.

Christian Standard Bible
God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.

American Standard Version
And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And God blessed the seventh day and he hallowed it, because in it he rested from all his works that God created to make.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he ceased from all his works which God began to do.

Contemporary English Version
God blessed the seventh day and made it special, because on that day he rested from his work.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

English Revised Version
And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it: because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on that day he stopped all his work of creation.

Good News Translation
He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation and stopped working.

International Standard Version
Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God stopped working on everything that he had been creating.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.

Literal Standard Version
And God blesses the seventh day, and sanctifies it, for in it He has ceased from all His work which God had created for making.

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.

NET Bible
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.

New Revised Standard Version
So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

New Heart English Bible
So God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested on it from all his works which God had created and made.

Webster's Bible Translation
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

World English Bible
God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.

Young's Literal Translation
And God blesseth the seventh day, and sanctifieth it, for in it He hath ceased from all His work which God had prepared for making.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Seventh Day
2And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. 3Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.

Cross References
Genesis 2:2
And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work.

Genesis 2:4
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made them.

Exodus 16:23
He told them, "This is what the LORD has said: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Then set aside whatever remains and keep it until morning.'"

Exodus 20:11
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Exodus 31:17
It is a sign between Me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'"


Treasury of Scripture

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

blessed.

Exodus 16:22-30
And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses…

Exodus 20:8-11
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy…

Exodus 23:12
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

created and made.

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Blessed Blesseth Blessing Ceased Created Creating Creation Hallowed Holy Making Prepared Rest Rested Sanctified Sanctifieth Seventh Work
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Blessed Blesseth Blessing Ceased Created Creating Creation Hallowed Holy Making Prepared Rest Rested Sanctified Sanctifieth Seventh Work
Genesis 2
1. The first Sabbath.
4. Further details concerning the manner of creation.
8. The planting of the garden of Eden, and its situation;
15. man is placed in it; and the tree of knowledge forbidden.
18. The animals are named by Adam.
21. The making of woman, and the institution of marriage.














(3) Sanctified it.--That is, separated it from ordinary uses, and hallowed it. Legal observance of the Sabbath did not begin till the days of Moses (Exodus 31:13; Exodus 35:2); but this blessing and sanctification were given prior to any covenant with man, and by Elohim, the God of nature, and not Jehovah, the God of grace. The weekly rest, therefore, is universal, permanent, and independent of the Mosaic law.

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. . . .

Verse 3. - And God blessed the seventh day. The blessing (cf. Genesis 1:22, 28) of the seventh day implied -

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: - . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then God
אֱלֹהִים֙ (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

blessed
וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ (way·ḇā·reḵ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1288: To kneel, to bless God, man, to curse

the seventh
הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י (haš·šə·ḇî·‘î)
Article | Number - ordinal masculine singular
Strong's 7637: Seventh (an ordinal number)

day
י֣וֹם (yō·wm)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3117: A day

and sanctified
וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ (way·qad·dêš)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6942: To be set apart or consecrated

it,
אֹת֑וֹ (’ō·ṯōw)
Direct object marker | third person masculine singular
Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case

because
כִּ֣י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

on [that day]
ב֤וֹ (ḇōw)
Preposition | third person masculine singular
Strong's Hebrew

He rested
שָׁבַת֙ (šā·ḇaṯ)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7673: To repose, desist from exertion

from all
מִכָּל־ (mik·kāl)
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

the work
מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ (mə·laḵ·tōw)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 4399: Deputyship, ministry, employment, work, property

of creation
בָּרָ֥א (bā·rā)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1254: To create, to cut down, select, feed

that
אֲשֶׁר־ (’ă·šer-)
Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

[He]
אֱלֹהִ֖ים (’ĕ·lō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

had accomplished.
לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ (la·‘ă·śō·wṯ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 6213: To do, make


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OT Law: Genesis 2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made (Gen. Ge Gn)
Genesis 2:2
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