Genesis 2:3

And God blessed the seventh day) It was the belief of the devout Israelite that in some mysterious way God at the beginning conferred His special favour upon the seventh day. The writer does not in this passage mention the name "Sabbath," but the reference to the Israelite Sabbath is indisputable. A play on the word "Sabbath "is evidently intended by the use of the word shâbath. The Hebrew cosmogony traced back the observance of the Sabbath to the Divine example on the seventh day of the creative week. Whether its observance was followed by the Israelites before the time of Moses, has been much disputed. No reference to it occurs in the Patriarchal narratives: but the intervals of seven days occurring in the story of the Flood (Genesis 7:10; Genesis 8:10; Genesis 8:12 J) may indicate the belief in the primitive recognition of the "week" as a sacred division of time. The reference to the Sabbath in Exodus 16:23 ff. has led many commentators to suppose that the opening word ("Remember") of the Fourth Commandment assumes the primitive recognition of the institution. See Special Note on Genesis 2:1-3.

hallowed) viz. separated from common and profane usage. LXX ἡγίασεν : Lat. sanctificavit. This is the first mention of the idea of holiness, which in Holy Scripture occupies such an important place in the description of religious worship and godly life.

We may be unable fully to discern what was intended by the writer, when he spoke of God "hallowing" or "making separate" the seventh day. But it conveys to us the thought that God from the first, set His seal upon "time" as well as His blessing upon matter; and this consecration of the seventh day should serve as the continual reminder that as "the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof," so time is of the Lord and the opportunities thereof. The Sabbath is the sacrament of time: its rest is the symbol of the consecration of work. The worship of the Creator made a demand for the consecration of time as well as of place. Notice the absence of the formula, "There was evening and there was morning, the seventh day." This omission led some to suppose that the seventh, or rest, day of God is not yet ended; and that, when the work of Creation was finished, there began on the seventh day the different task of the maintenance of the universe. But it seems more probable that by the reference to the seventh day in Genesis 2:2, and by the blessing of the seventh day in Genesis 2:3, the writer intended that the seven days should be regarded as completed, and as presenting the Divine type for every week of seven days. After the seventh day came another phase of Divine activity, the unceasing operation of Divine laws. The Immanence of Creative Love and Wisdom needs to be acknowledged no less than their Transcendence; cf., especially, John 5:17, "My Father worketh even until now, and I work." In that conception of Divine work, there is no room for the thought of cessation.