1. The first revelation of the Sabbath commandment is recorded in Exo 16:23-29, set in "the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt" (v1). The Ten Commandments were given soon after they arrived at Mount Sinai "in the third month after the Israelites left Egypt" (19:1-2).
2. The NJB and NRS - "and keep it holy" - unfortunately, reduces the preposition into a mere conjunction of indeterminate and questionable value.
3. The first time in Exo has to do with the participation of the alien in the feast of Unleaven Bread-Passover (Exo 12:19, 48-49). In Deut it had to do with the abjudication of justice to all persons with consideration for their station in life (Deut 1:16).
4. The structure is adapted from N. Lohfink, "Decalogue in Deuteronomy 5," in N. Lohfink & L. M. Maloney, Theology of the Pentateuch: Themes of the Priestly Narrative and Deuteronomy (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1994) 252-3, & R. D. Nelson, Deuteronomy: A Commentary (Old Testament Library; Louisville/London: Westminster John Knox, 2002) 82.
5. In the end we never did have servants, but we came to a decision that, if we ever do, he/she would have a say in the choice of his/her room.
6. Anthony Phillips' assertion, e.g., that "the fact the Israel had once been slaves . . . according to Deuteronmy explains why the Sabbath was instituted in the first place. . . . Its [the Sabbath's] creation in fact constituted an assertion of political independence [from Pharaoh]" is so baseless it bothers on being nonsensical (Deuteronomy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973) 48).
7. At one of the lectures I gave in a highly "middle-class" church in Kuala Lumpur, the wife of one of the leaders insisted in the discussions afterwards that she had the right not to give her Indonesian maid the day off since she had already paid for her time as part of the contract.