John Calvin Commentary Exodus 20:10

"but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:" — Exodus 20:10 (ASV)

Thou shalt not do any work. That is, whatever could have been finished yesterday or postponed until tomorrow. (For instance,³³³) it was not lawful for judges to give a hearing to two litigants. However, if anyone had violently assaulted his neighbor, it was allowable to prevent the injury and to give relief to the unoffending person, because the necessity of the case permitted no delay. It was not lawful to cook food for your guests; but if an ox or a donkey had fallen into a pit, it was to be taken out, because aid would have been too late the next day.

For this reason Christ declares that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27), since God does not require more than what was useful or necessary for keeping the people in the exercise of piety. Thus, it would have been wicked to send out an ox to pasture; but if a goring ox had gotten out, it was right to bring it back to its stall, lest it should kill or injure those whom it met.

Thy man-servant and thy maid-servant. Although it is added in Deuteronomy that God had regard for equity when He commands a relaxation from labor to be given to male and female servants, and the Israelites are called upon to remember that they were once servants, so that they may be more disposed to act humanely, still we must bear in mind what I have stated: that the direct object here was the honoring of the one God.

We know that the whole race of Abraham was consecrated to God, and that their servants were a kind of adjunct to them, so that they were circumcised in common with them. And assuredly, it is very absurd that a man should encourage a profane contempt of God in the family over which he presides, and in which he would be recognized as master.

The case of “strangers” was different. They were obliged to rest on the Sabbath, although they remained uncircumcised. For he refers not only to the foreigners who had subscribed to the Law, but also to the uncircumcised.

If anyone should object that they were improperly made partakers of the sacred sign by which God had bound His elect people to Himself, the reply is easy: this was not done for their sakes, but lest anything contrary to the Sabbath should happen before the eyes of the Israelites. We may understand this more clearly from the case of the oxen and donkeys.

Surely God would never have required spiritual service of brute animals; yet He ordained their repose as a lesson, so that wherever the Israelites turned their eyes, they might be incited to the observation of the Sabbath.

Nor can we wonder at this, when in the general mournings appointed for the deprecation of God’s wrath, a fast was imposed upon the animals. This was so that wretched men, being admonished by the sight, might more deeply feel the burden of their guilt. By their voluntary self-accusation, they might then prevent the judgment of God and be seriously dissatisfied with themselves on account of those sins whose punishment they saw to be imposed, to a certain degree, upon innocent animals.

Besides, if the very least liberty had been conceded to them, they would have done many things to evade the Law in their days of rest by employing strangers and their cattle in their work.

³³³ Added from Fr.