To take a family meal was the first thing done. The master of the house filled the cup, when all were assembled around the table, and blessed it, and said, “On the sixth day were the earth and the heavens and all their glory completed. For God finished by the seventh day all the work which he had done, and rested on the seventh day from all his labour, and hallowed it, because on it he rested from all the work which he had created and made.” After a short pause, he proceeded, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, who hast created the fruit of the vine, King of the world, who hast sanctified us by thy precepts, and commanded us to keep thy sabbaths, and hast appointed them to us of thy good pleasure, as a memorial of the work of creation. It is also the beginning of the assembling of thy saints, and of the going out of Egypt: for thou hast chosen us out from among all nations, and hast sanctified us and hast appointed to us the holy sabbath. We praise thee, O Lord, that thou hast made the sabbath-day holy.” The cup was emptied, the master of the house blessed the bread also in the usual form of words, and the meal began. In the mean time the course of priests had been changed in the temple, that which had been on duty in the preceding week, giving place to that whose turn of service it was for the week following. The shew-bread was changed, twelve of the priests bringing each one of the new loaves in a golden dish, and two others censers with incense. Then all the children of Israel laid themselves down to rest, in their own houses or in the temple, in joyful expectation of the sabbath-dawn.