2. and he rested on the seventh day—not to repose from exhaustion with labor (see :-), but ceased from working, an example equivalent to a command that we also should cease from labor of every kind. read more
3. blessed and sanctified the seventh day—a peculiar distinction put upon it above the other six days, and showing it was devoted to sacred purposes. The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation, giving rise to that weekly division of time which prevailed in the earliest ages. It is a wise and beneficent law, affording that regular interval of rest which the physical nature of man and the animals employed in his service requires, and the neglect of which brings both to premature decay.... read more
4. The seventh day 2:1-3"Genesis 2:1-3 echoes Genesis 1:1 by introducing the same phrases but in reverse order: ’he created,’ ’God,’ ’heavens and earth’ reappear as ’heavens and earth’ (Genesis 2:1) ’God’ (Genesis 2:2), ’created’ (Genesis 2:3). This chiastic pattern brings the section to a neat close which is reinforced by the inclusion ’God created’ linking Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 2:3." [Note: Wenham, p. 5.] The mood of the narrative also returns to what it was in Genesis 1:1-2. Silence and... read more
"Seventh" comes from a Hebrew root meaning "to be full, completed, entirely made up." [Note: Bush, p. 46.] "Rested" means ceased from activity (cf. Exodus 40:33). There is no implication that God felt fatigued by His creative activity and needed to rest. He simply stopped creating. read more
God "blessed" the seventh day in that He set it apart as different from the other days of creation. It was a memorial of His creative work. Note the unique threefold repetition of "seventh day," highlighting its special significance.". . . according to one Babylonian tradition, the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of each month were regarded as unlucky: Genesis, however, declares the seventh day of every week to be holy, a day of rest consecrated to God... read more
The Creation'The foundation of foundations and pillar of all wisdom is to know that the First Being is, and that He giveth existence to everything that exists! 'Thus wrote Moses Maimonides, a Jewish scholar of the 12th cent, a.d., concerning whom the Jewish proverb runs: 'From Moses to Moses there arose none like Moses.' He had in his mind the opening chapter of the Bible, the object of which is to lay this foundation; to declare the existence of the One God; to teach that the Universe was... read more
EXCURSUS B: ON THE NAMES ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH-ELOHIM.Throughout the first account of creation (Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3) the Deity is simply called Elohim. This word is strictly a plural of Eloah, which is used as the name of God only in poetry, or in late books like those of Nehemiah and Daniel. It is there an Aramaism, God in Syriac being Aloho, in Ohaldee Ellah, and in Arabic Allahu—all of which are merely dialectic varieties of the Hebrew Eloah, and are used constantly in the singular... read more
(2) God ended his work.—Not all work (see John 5:17, and Note in loc.), but the special work of creation. The laws given in these six days still continue their activity; they are still maintained, and there may even be with them progress and development. There is also something special on this seventh day; for in it the work of redemption was willed by the Father, wrought by the Son, and applied by the Holy Ghost. But there is no creative activity, as when vegetable or animal life began, or... read more
(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... read more
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Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Genesis 2:3
Genesis 2:3. God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it— Blessed, i.e.. says Mr. Locke, appointed it to be kept as a day of holy rejoicing; and sanctified it, i.e.. separated, or set it apart, for his own use; that, upon it, men might cease from their work, as he had ceased from his; and employ their time in worshipping and thanking him for his mercies and benefits conferred upon them. The word שׁבעי shebei, seventh, comes from שׁבע shabang, which signifies sufficiency, or completion,... read more