Why should the Israelites observe the Sabbath day? The answer in the Hebrew Bible is not so straightforward. According to the Book of Exodus (quoted in italic type in the left column), it’s because after six days of Creation, God rested on the seventh day. But Deuteronomy (center, underlined) offers a somewhat different explanation: The Israelites should rest because they were once slaves in Egypt. Both these documents must have been in circulation at the time the Dead Sea Scrolls were composed: An enterprising scribe tried to straighten out the confusion in a manuscript known today as 4QDeuteronomyn, which combines the message of both Exodus (in italics) and Deuteronomy (underlined), as shown in the right column.
Exodus (20:8–11)
Remember the Sabbath day,
and keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work— you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave,
your livestock,
or the alien resident in your towns.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.
Deuteronomy (5:12–15)
Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy,
as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord you God; you shall not do any work— you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock,
or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
4QDeuteronomyn
Observe the Sabbath day,
to sanctify it, according as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do in it any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, your ox or your ass
or your beast, your sojourner who is in your gates; in order that your male servant and your female servant might rest like you. And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you forth from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day to sanctify it.
For six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all which is in them, and he rested on 039the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day to sanctify it.
