The highest
development, amounting even to a change of quality, is seen
in the Priestly Code.
According to 2Kings iv. 22, 23, one has on Sabbath time for
occupations that are not of an everyday kind; servant and ass
can be taken on a journey which is longer than that "of a
Sabbath day." In Hos. ii. 13 (11) we read, "I make an end of all
your joy, your feasts, your new moons and your Sabbaths," that is
to say, the last-named share with the first the happy joyousness
which is impossible in the exile which Jehovah threatens. With
the Jehovist and the Deuteronomist the Sabbath, which, it is true,
is already extended in Amos viii. 5 to commerce, is an
institution specially for agriculture; it is the day of
refreshment for the people and the cattle, and is accordingly
employed for social ends in the same way as the sacrificial meal
is (Exodus xx. 10, xxiii. 12, xxxiv. 21; Deuteronomy v. 13, 14).
Although the moral turn given to the observance is genuinely
Israelitic and not original, yet the rest even here still
continues to be a feast, a satisfaction for the labouring classes;
for what is enjoined as a duty--upon the Israelite rulers, that
is, to whom the legislation is directed--is less that they should
rest than that they should give rest.
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