Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. The Sabbath command is restated with a new emphasis: the rest is for the ox, the donkey, the slave, and the foreigner. The humanitarian rationale — that the animals and the most vulnerable people need rest — is the stated purpose of the weekly Sabbath in this verse. Deuteronomy 5:14–15 grounds the Sabbath in the memory of Egypt: you were slaves in Egypt; therefore the Lord commands you to observe the Sabbath. The slave who was not given rest in Egypt must be given rest in Israel. The Sabbath is the covenant community's ongoing repudiation of the labor extraction model of Egypt.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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