Note 746 — Chapter VIII · THE HEBREW SABBATH

The form of the Fourth Commandment in the First Decalogue (Exodus, xx, 8), “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy,” indicates not the institution of a new day but the sanctioning of an old one. In the Second Decalogue (Deuteronomy, v, 12), the commandment reads: “Observe the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” The word “holy” in these injunctions has the force of “set apart ritually,” “separated from common use,” i.e., taboo.