Exodus 20:9

Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

Ver. 9. Six days shalt thou labour.] God hath reserved but one day in seven, as he reserved the tree of knowledge of good and evil; {Gen 2:2-3} yet wretched men must needs clip the Lord’s coin. In many places God’s Sabbaths are made the voider and dunghill for all refuse businesses. The Sabbath of the Lord, the sanctified day of his rest, saith one, is shamelessly troubled and disquieted. The world is now grown perfectly profane, saith another, and can play on the Lord’s day without concern. {a} {See Trapp (for summary of Law) on "Exo 20:17"}

{a} Bishop King, On John, lect. vii.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 9. Six days shalt thou labour] Therefore he who idles away time on any of the six days, is as guilty before God as he who works on the Sabbath. No work should be done on the Sabbath that can be done on the preceding days, or can be deferred to the succeeding ones. Works of absolute necessity and mercy are alone excepted. He who works by his servants or cattle is equally guilty as if he worked himself. Hiring out horses, &c., for pleasure or business, going on journeys, paying worldly visits, or taking jaunts on the Lord's day, are breaches of this law. The whole of it should be devoted to the rest of the body and the improvement of the mind. God says he has hallowed it - he has made it sacred and set it apart for the above purposes. It is therefore the most proper day for public religious worship.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) Six days shalt thou labour.—The form is certainly imperative; and it has been held that the fourth commandment is “not limited to a mere enactment respecting one day, but prescribes the due distribution of a week, and enforces the six days’ work as much as the seventh day’s rest” (Garden in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii., p. 1068). But the work on the six days is really rather assumed as what will be than required as what must be; and the intention of the clause is prohibitory rather than mandatory—“thou shalt not work more than six days out of the seven.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. work] more precisely, business,—the word regularly used of the ‘work’ or ‘business’ forbidden on the sabbath (Exo_31:14-15, Jer_17:22; Jer_17:24 al.: cf. Gen_2:2), or other sacred day (Exo_12:16).

9, 10. Explanation how the sabbath is to be kept holy.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Six days shalt thou labour,.... This is not to be taken for a precept, but a permission; not as a command enjoining men to work and labour with their hands, to provide for themselves and families things useful and necessary, and honest in the sight of God; but as a grant and allowance of so many days to employ themselves in, for their own profit and advantage, and that of their families; the Lord only reserving one day out of seven for his service, which ought to be looked upon as a singular favour, that he required no more of their time for his use, and the rest they might spend as they pleased, so that they did not indulge themselves in sin. It is required indeed of all men to labour in some sort and way or another, with their heads or with their hands; though all are not obliged to labour in the same way, or to the same degree, for he that will not work ought not to eat; but this law is not an injunction of that kind, only a toleration of labour on the six days of the week, if proper and necessary, when it is forbidden on the seventh:

and do all thy work, which is incumbent on a man, he is called unto, and is necessary to be done for the good of him and his family; particularly care should be taken, that all should be done on the six days that could possibly be done, and nothing left to be done on the seventh.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Six, &c. This must be understood if no festival of obligation occurred. For many were in force in the old law; such as the Passover, Encenia, Purim, &c., as there are still in the Church. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This may be either,

1. A command to employ those days in our worldly occasions, yet so as God and religion be not neglected on those days, as many scriptures teach us. Or,

2. A permission to do so; which I prefer,

1. Because so it is a proper argument to enforce the observation of the sabbath: q.d. Grudge not me one day, when I allow you six for it.

2. Because the command of diligence in our callings would seem improperly placed here, as being of a quite different nature, and belonging to the second table, and being provided for in a distinct command, as we shall see.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Six days shalt thou labour — Here is a positive commandment, as explicit as that which enjoins the sabbath rest. No man is at liberty, before God, to spend his days in idleness and inactivity, and the healthfulness and full vigour of the physical constitution depend as much upon bodily activity as does the soundness of the religious life demand a weekly day of rest.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Six days shalt thou labour. This is not so much a command as a prohibition" Thou shaft not labor more than six (consecutive) clays." In them thou shelf do all thy necessary work, so as to have the Sabbath free for the worship and service of God.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ועשית כל מלאכתך [SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOUR] AND DO ALL THY WORK — When the Sabbath comes it should be in thy eyes as though all thy work were done (completed), so that thou shouldst not think at all about work (Mekhilta).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOR, AND DO ALL THY WORK. The term “labor” applies to work which is not for the needs of the body, such as cooking and the like, something like it is said: and in all manner of labor in the field; when thou tillest the ground; and ye shall be tilled and sown, and as I will yet explain with the help of G-d. It is for this reason that He said: “Six days you shall work the ground and do all thy work which is for your physical needs and your benefit, something like, bake that which you will bake. But on the Sabbath, you shall not do any kind of work, thou, thy son, nor thy daughter — i.e., the minors.” Thus He has warned us against our minor children doing work on the Sabbath with our knowledge and consent. Nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant means the servants who have undergone circumcision and immersion, (children of the covenant). See Mechilta here. See also above, Note 79. who are obligated to observe all laws of the Sabbath just as Israelites, even as He said in the Book of Deuteronomy, that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. In all [other] commandments of the Torah, observance is incumbent upon them as it is upon women, as is explained in the words of our Rabbis. Now it would have been proper that He warn them directly, for they themselves are duty-bound to observe the Sabbath. Scripture, however, speaks to us because the servants are in our possession, thus telling us that their resting is incumbent upon us and that if they are not hindered from doing work, we will be punished on account of them. Besides, it is with Israel that G-d speaks in all of the Ten Commandments, [and for this reason, the command is not given directly to the servants].

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.