BARNES' NOTES ON GEN. 2:2.
By Albert Barnes
ON THE SEVENTH DAY GOD ENDED HIS WORK.
These words, literally understood, would seem to imply that the Almighty performed some part of the work of creation on the seventh day. But, as we are elsewhere informed that six days only were actually thus employed, it would perhaps, be equally proper to render the original “had ended,” instead of “ended,” as is done by many commentators. There is, however, no absolute necessity for this, as in Scripture style the “end” of anything is often synonymous with its “perfection,” and the holy rest of the Sabbath, may have been designed as a kind of perfection, crowning or consummation of the six days’ work. The original word for “seventh” comes from a root signifying to be full, complete, entirely made up. “Seven,” therefore, is often called a perfect number, being used for many, or for a full number, however large, as Gen. 33:3; Lev. 4:6; Jer. 15:9. No number mentioned in the sacred volume occurs so frequently as this, and as it is plain that no particular number when viewed abstractly, by itself, apart from the thing numbered, has any more virtue or significance than another, it is to be inferred that the incessant use of this numeral in the Scriptures carries in it some important allusion. What more probable than that it is founded upon this history of the creation occupying with its Sabbath rest the space of seven days, and shadowing out a seven-fold division of time to the end of the world? * * * AND SANCTIFIED IT, HEB., KADASH.
It is by this term that the positive appointment of the Sabbath as a day of rest to man is expressed. God's sanctifying the day is equivalent to his commanding men to sanctify it. As at the close of the creation the seventh day was thus set apart by the Most High for such purposes, without limitation to age or country, the observance is obligatory upon the whole human race to whom in the wisdom of Providence, it may be communicated. This further appears from the reason why God blessed and sanctified it, viz., “because that in it he had rested,” &c., which is a reason of equal force at all times, and equally applying to all the posterity of Adam; and, if it formed a just ground for sanctifying the first day which dawned upon the finished system of the universe, it must be equally so for sanctifying every seventh day to the end of time. . . . Besides there are traces of a Sabbath from the beginning of the world. For if no Sabbath had been given, whence came the practice of measuring time by weeks? Yet that custom obtained both in the antediluvian and patriarchal ages. Gen. 8:10, 12-29; 27:28. Again, although the observance of the Sabbath had no doubt been much neglected in Egypt, yet the remembrance of it was not wholly effaced; for Moses, before the giving of the law, speaks of the Sabbath as an institution known and received among them. Ex. 16:23. And without any express direction they gathered on the sixth day a double portion of manna to serve them on the Sabbath, which surely it could not have been expected that they would have done had no such institution existed. It can scarcely be doubted, therefore, that the Sabbath is as old as the creation, and of the wisdom of such an appointment a moment’s reflection will convince us. As God made all things for himself so he instituted the Sabbath in order that his rational creatures might have stated opportunities of paying him their tribute of prayer and praise. * * * * The sanctification of the seventh day in the present case can only be understood of its being set apart to the special worship and service of God; for it is to be remembered that at this time, everything was holy as far as moral purity was concerned.