The Bible is packed full of great life lessons and motivational passages. These Bible verses about Sabbath will help you find more peace, joy and balance in your life without sacrificing fun. The Bible’s teachings on the Sabbath are clear, but they are also paradoxical. It’s a day of rest and spiritual renewal, but it is also clearly mandated as a holy and sacred time upon which Christians must worship. For those who do not hold a modern view of Sabbath keeping for one reason or another, scripture can offer much to help them understand how to live out their devotion to God in a day-to-day way.
Christian Sabbath: The Christian Sabbath is a “rest” day—not in the sense of being inactive and lazy, but rather in the sense of resting from your righteous labors and entering in to something greater. Christians who choose to observe God’s Sabbath understand that their time can’t be measured by their own personal whims—they understand that there are higher callings.
In the Christian Bible, the Sabbath (or Sabbath day) is one of the Ten Commandments handed down to Moses by God. The commandment reads “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,” (Exodus 20:3-5).
This blog post is all about finding Bible verses about the Sabbath. The Word of God speaks very clearly to this issue, and much can be learned from studying it carefully. Find Bible verses about the importance of keeping a Sabbath rest.
Bible Verses About Sabbath
Exodus 20:8-11 ESV / 657 helpful votes
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Mark 2:27 ESV / 595 helpful votes
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Leviticus 23:3 ESV / 477 helpful votes
“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.
Genesis 2:3 ESV / 416 helpful votes
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Isaiah 58:13 ESV / 378 helpful votes
“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;
Hebrews 4:9 ESV / 315 helpful votes
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,
Exodus 20:8 ESV / 290 helpful votes
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Ezekiel 20:12-24 ESV / 248 helpful votes
Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands, because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. …
Matthew 5:17-19 ESV / 241 helpful votes
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Isaiah 58:13-14 ESV / 227 helpful votes
“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Luke 4:16 ESV / 226 helpful votes
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 ESV / 221 helpful votes
“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Luke 23:56 ESV / 211 helpful votes
Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Acts 18:4 ESV / 203 helpful votes
And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Ezekiel 20:12 ESV / 201 helpful votes
Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.
Colossians 2:16-17 ESV / 195 helpful votes
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Nehemiah 13:15-22 ESV / 170 helpful votes
In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. …
Genesis 2:2-3 ESV / 162 helpful votes
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Matthew 12:12 ESV / 156 helpful votes
Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:28 ESV / 154 helpful votes
So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Acts 17:2 ESV / 153 helpful votes
And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Isaiah 66:22-23 ESV / 153 helpful votes
“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.
Exodus 31:14 ESV / 153 helpful votes
You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Acts 16:13 ESV / 147 helpful votes
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
Exodus 31:17 ESV / 141 helpful votes
It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
Exodus 34:21 ESV / 139 helpful votes
“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
Exodus 16:23 ESV / 133 helpful votes
He said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’”
Exodus 20:10 ESV / 132 helpful votes
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
Exodus 20:11 ESV / 129 helpful votes
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Colossians 2:16 ESV / 122 helpful votes
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
Matthew 24:20 ESV / 122 helpful votes
Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.
Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 116 helpful votes
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. …
Luke 13:10-17 ESV / 110 helpful votes
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” …
Matthew 12:8 ESV / 105 helpful votes
For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Exodus 20:8-10 ESV / 104 helpful votes
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
Exodus 35:3 ESV / 100 helpful votes
You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”
Exodus 31:16 ESV / 97 helpful votes
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.
Acts 13:42 ESV / 93 helpful votes
As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath.
Mark 2:23 ESV / 91 helpful votes
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
Isaiah 56:2-7 ESV / 90 helpful votes
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— …
Acts 13:14 ESV / 89 helpful votes
But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
Revelation 14:12 ESV / 85 helpful votes
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.
Numbers 15:32-36 ESV / 85 helpful votes
While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Exodus 35:2 ESV / 85 helpful votes
Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
Romans 14:5 ESV / 80 helpful votes
One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
Acts 20:7 ESV / 80 helpful votes
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
Hebrews 4:4 ESV / 79 helpful votes
For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”
Revelation 1:10 ESV / 78 helpful votes
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet
Matthew 28:1 ESV / 68 helpful votes
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
Genesis 2:2 ESV / 67 helpful votes
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
Deuteronomy 5:15 ESV / 59 helpful votes
You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Luke 16:17 ESV / 58 helpful votes
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.
Mark 2:23-28 ESV / 58 helpful votes
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. …
Matthew 15:9 ESV / 58 helpful votes
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Isaiah 56:2 ESV / 58 helpful votes
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Hebrews 4:9-11 ESV / 57 helpful votes
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:9-10 ESV / 57 helpful votes
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
John 5:16-17 ESV / 57 helpful votes
And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Exodus 20:1-26 ESV / 53 helpful votes
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, …
Acts 1:12 ESV / 50 helpful votes
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.
Mark 2:27-28 ESV / 50 helpful votes
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Nehemiah 9:14 ESV / 50 helpful votes
And you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant.
Deuteronomy 5:12-14 ESV / 50 helpful votes
“‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
Leviticus 23:32 ESV / 50 helpful votes
It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”
Genesis 2:1-3 ESV / 49 helpful votes
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Mark 16:1 ESV / 48 helpful votes
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
1 Corinthians 16:2 ESV / 47 helpful votes
On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
Leviticus 26:2 ESV / 46 helpful votes
You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
Deuteronomy 5:14 ESV / 45 helpful votes
But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
Exodus 31:16-17 ESV / 45 helpful votes
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
Genesis 2:1-3:24 ESV / 45 helpful votes
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, …
Ezekiel 20:20 ESV / 44 helpful votes
And keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.
Exodus 31:13 ESV / 43 helpful votes
“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.
Mark 3:1-6 ESV / 41 helpful votes
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. …
Exodus 23:12 ESV / 41 helpful votes
“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.
Ezekiel 20:19-20 ESV / 40 helpful votes
I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.
Exodus 16:29 ESV / 40 helpful votes
See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”
