... Perhaps the most striking aspect of the command and the most important for this study is the rationale given for it in verse 11. Here the author states that God commands the Sabbath to be kept because ‘in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it.’ This reference to the capstone of the creation narrative can be viewed either as an etiology for the Sabbath or as a simple reinforcement of the importance of the command: ‘Yahweh himself kept the sabbath, and blessed it: Israel therefore could hardly do otherwise.’ In either case, the very fact that God himself acted this way and commanded the Israelites to do likewise is evidence of the importance of the Sabbath and the emphasis it should have in the weekly life of every Israelite. ...