Exodus 31:16
וְשָׁמְרוּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּת לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּת לְדֹרֹתָם בְּרִית עוֹלָֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְשָׁמְר֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּ֑ת לַעֲשׂ֧וֹת אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּ֛ת לְדֹרֹתָ֖ם בְּרִ֥ית עוֹלָֽם׃
καὶ φυλάξουσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ τὰ σάββατα, ποιεῖν αὐτὰ εἰς τὰς γένεὰς αὐτῶν· διαθήκη αἰώνιος
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Custodiant filii Israël sabbatum, et celebrent illud in generationibus suis. Pactum est sempiternum
Por lo tanto, los israelitas guardarán el sábado y lo celebrarán de generación en generación como un pacto eterno.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Guardarán, pues, el sábado los hijos de Israel: celebrándolo por sus edades por pacto perpetuo:
The Israelites must keep the Sabbath, celebrating it as a permanent covenant for the generations to come.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse commands the people of Israel to observe the Sabbath, keeping it through their generations as an act described in Hebrew with the noun phrase "covenant of perpetuity."
Key words
- sha.me.Ru ("they will observe", H8104G) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain from the preceding verses; expresses an action to be carried out by the subject "sons of Israel."
- sha.Bat ("sabbath", H7676) — feminine singular noun, appearing twice with the definite article ha ("the", H9009), first as the object of "observe" and then as the object of the infinitive "celebrating."
- 'a.Sot ("celebrating", H6213A) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed la ("by/to", H9005), forming a purpose or explanatory clause attached to the main verb.
- do.ro.Ta + m ("generations" + "their", H1755 + H9028) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, forming the phrase "for their generations," marking temporal continuity.
- be.Rit ("a covenant of", H1285) — feminine singular construct noun, joined to o.Lam ("perpetuity", H5769G) to form the construct phrase "covenant of perpetuity."
What the text says
The sentence opens with the narrative vav ve (H9001) attached to sha.me.Ru (H8104G), a qal sequential perfect verb that continues a chain of prior instructions. The grammatical subject, ve.nei- Yis.ra.'El ("sons of Israel", H1121G + H3478), is placed after the verb, following the verb-subject order typical of this construction. The direct object, et- ha.sha.Bat ("the sabbath", H0853 + H9009 + H7676), is marked explicitly by the untranslated object marker 'et.
A second clause follows, introduced by the preposition la (H9005) attached to the infinitive 'a.Sot (H6213A), literally "to do" or "in doing," which again governs et- ha.sha.Bat — the sabbath repeated as object. This infinitive clause is followed by le.do.ro.Tam ("to/for their generations", H9005 + H1755 + H9028), a construct noun with a third-person masculine plural suffix, indicating the ongoing temporal scope of the action across generations.
The final phrase, be.Rit o.Lam ("covenant of perpetuity", H1285 + H5769G), stands as a construct chain without a copula or connecting verb in the Hebrew — the two nouns are juxtaposed, a common construction in Biblical Hebrew where the relationship between the noun and the appositional phrase is inferred from proximity rather than stated grammatically.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders be.Rit o.Lam as διαθήκη αἰώνιος ("eternal covenant"), using an adjective for o.Lam ("perpetuity", H5769G) rather than the construct-noun structure of the Hebrew. The Vulgate similarly uses "pactum sempiternum," an adjectival construction. The Hebrew itself uses a noun-noun construct (be.Rit of o.Lam) rather than a noun modified by an adjective, a difference in syntax that the Greek and Latin renderings do not preserve.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.