3048.— Finished His Work. Gen. 2: 2.
By A. L. M.
There are two versions which render Gen. 2:2, "For on the sixth day God finished His work;" namely, the Samaritan and the Septuagint. Dr. Adam Clarke refers to these; Boothroyd also refers to them, and translates, "For on the sixth day God finished His work which He had purposed to do, and on the seventh day God rested from doing any of His works." And yet we see no reason why the common rendering is not perfectly proper. A part of God's work was the Sabbath. He was giving us a full, rounded-out week, with its days of labor as well as its day of rest. Consequently a part of the work concerning that first week must be the making of the Sabbath; and to make that, God rested upon it, blessed it, and sanctified it. If the rendering of the Samaritan and Septuagint, not the Syriac, be correct, the work would have reference simply and solely to the material doing of things.