The Fourth Commandment, Stated in Full

Exodus twenty, verses eight through ten, states the Sabbath commandment in its fullest early form: six days are given for labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, on which no work is to be done by the person commanded, their son, daughter, servant, animal or the resident stranger within their gates. Placed fourth among the Ten Commandments, the instruction is distinguished from the surrounding commands by its length and by the reasoning attached to it, since the verses that follow ground the seventh day rest in the pattern of creation itself, six days of work followed by rest on the seventh. The command's reach across household, servant, animal and resident foreigner marks it as a communal rather than a purely personal obligation, extending rest to everyone within a household's authority rather than only to the head of the household making the commitment. Within the Ten Commandments the Sabbath instruction sits between commands governing Israel's relationship to God directly and commands governing relationships between people, a position later readers have taken as reflecting the day's double character, a sign of covenant with God kept through a concretely social practice touching every member of the household in turn.