Exodus 20:9 (DBY)

Passage

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

Nearby Context

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not idly utter the name of Jehovah thy God; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that idly uttereth his name.

Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day to hallow it.

Exodus 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

Exodus 20:10 but the seventh day is the sabbath of Jehovah thy God: thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy bondman, nor thy handmaid, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

Exodus 20:11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "days", "shalt", "thou", and "labour". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "days" and "shalt", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 8's "Remember the sabbath day to hallow it..." into verse 10's "but the seventh day is the sabbath...", so "days" and "shalt" belong inside that flow. In Exodus context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "days" and "shalt" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.