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Throughout much of their history, YEHOVAH's people -- ancient Israel -- rebelled against
YEHOVAH, and failed to observe the Sabbath. They ignored it and trampled all over it. Notice:
"Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths....But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the
wilderness...and my sabbaths they greatly polluted..." (Ezekiel 20:12-13). Because of this sin, the
ten tribes of the House of Israel went into captivity and lost their identity. They became known as
Gentiles, because they forgot YEHOVAH's Sabbath!

People Punished for Sabbath-Breaking

YEHOVAH warned the people of Jerusalem that if they did not keep His Sabbath holy, He
would destroy the city. "But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to
bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a
fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched"
(Jeremiah 17:27).

The people did not listen. They continued to break the Sabbath. The result was the sacking
and destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and the capture of its citizens (Jeremiah 52:12-30).

After a number of years YEHOVAH brought some of the House of Judah back to Jerusa-
lem. The people rebuilt the city and acknowledged the Sabbath. But even then, many began to
break the Sabbath. Nehemiah "contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil
thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day?

"Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this
city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath" (Nehemiah 13:17-18).

Men Make Sabbath a Burden

Upon receiving Nehemiah's correction most of the people repented and began observing
YEHOVAH's Sabbath. However, human nature has a tendency of going to extremes. After the
death of Nehemiah, religionists in their zeal to keep the Sabbath holy began to legislate in minute
detail what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath day. By contrast, YEHOVAH had
given the people basic spiritual principles and expected them to apply those principles
accordingly.

"Not good enough," said the Pharisees, the leading religious party. "The people don't have
the knowledge, understanding and wisdom to do that. We must tell the people what they may do
and what they may not do."

And the Pharisees did just that. They established thirty-nine (39) main categories of pro-
hibited work alone. This was done to effect a norm for Sabbath observance that would be
universal.

Speaking of the rabbis who enacted these rules, Rabbi Solomon Goldman, in his book A
Guide to the Sabbath, says on page 28: "Uniformity, they believed, could be achieved, not by the
enunciation of general principles, but by sharp and detailed demarcation of the areas of what is
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