Exodus 31:17

Summary

The verse closes Yehovah's speech about the Sabbath sign, stating that it is a perpetual sign between Yehovah and the people of Israel, grounded in the fact that Yehovah made heaven and earth in six days and on the seventh day stopped working and was renewed.

Key words

• bein / Vein ("between", H0996G) — the same construct form is repeated twice ("between me and between the sons of Israel"), a Hebrew pattern for expressing reciprocity that some translations collapse into a single "between."
• 'ot ("[is] a sign", H0226H) — construct-form noun functioning as predicate; the following hi' ("she/it", H1931) acts as the copula linking subject and predicate, agreeing in feminine gender with 'ot.
• le'olam ("for ever", H5769G) — a prepositional phrase (le + noun) marking unlimited duration, modifying the sign just declared.
• shavat ("he rested", H7673A) — qal perfect, a completed simple action verb.
• yinnafash ("he refreshed himself", H5314) — niphal form (passive/reflexive stem) introduced by the narrative vav, marking a second, sequential action following shavat.

What the text says

The verse opens with a doubled construct phrase, beini u-vein bene Yisra'el ("between me and between the sons of Israel"), a Hebrew construction that repeats the preposition "between" for each party rather than using it once for both, as is common in reciprocal relational statements. The predicate 'ot hi' le'olam ("a sign it [is] forever") places the noun 'ot before the pronoun hi', which functions as a linking element rather than an independent subject, a typical nominal-sentence pattern in Biblical Hebrew that does not require a verb "to be."

The causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) explains the sign's basis: sheshet yamim 'asah Yehovah ("six days Yehovah made"), with 'asah as a qal perfect verb indicating a completed act. The final clause uses two verbs in sequence, connected by the narrative vav: shavat ("he rested," qal perfect) followed by vayyinafash ("and he was refreshed," niphal). The niphal stem of yinnafash differs from the active shavat, suggesting a distinct nuance — not simply stopping activity but undergoing a state of renewal or being "breathed" (the root is related to nefesh, "soul/breath")

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew verbs shavat and vayyinafash as katepausen ("he ceased") and epausato ("he stopped"), both centered on cessation, without preserving the niphal nuance of "breathing" or "refreshing" tied to nefesh. The Vulgate compresses both verbs into a single phrase, ab opere cessavit ("he ceased from work"), adding "from work" (ab opere), which has no corresponding word in the Hebrew text. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation reverses the order of the parties in the opening phrase ("between the Israelites and me") compared to the Hebrew sequence, which names beini ("between me") first.