What Does Deuteronomy 5:12 Mean?
Guard the sabbath day to set it apart, as the LORD your God has commanded you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.THE KEY
The command treats rest as something to guard: stopping is what marks the day as set apart.
THE MEANING
Your time is not one undivided demand for work. This verse presents a day whose rest is guarded and whose distinction is made by ceasing, so the boundary itself carries meaning.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that every hour must earn its value through productivity gives way to a day whose worth lies in its protected rest.
THE ROOT
שַׁבָּת
shabbat
GROWS FROM
שבת
sh-b-t
To cease, stop, or come to rest.
Sabbath carries the idea of cessation within its name. The verse joins that stopping to a day set apart, so rest is not leftover time after work; it is what marks the day as distinct.
ALSO GROWS
shavat: Cease or stop.
שָׁבַת
This verb shares the Sabbath’s root and makes its central action explicit: work stops.
shabbaton: A sabbath rest or complete cessation.
שַׁבָּתוֹן
This related form shows the root extending from the act of stopping to a time characterized by rest.
לְקַדְּשׁוֹ
leqaddesho
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To set apart, mark as distinct.
“set apart” in this verse is leqaddesho. The verse pairs cessation with setting apart: the day becomes distinct through the boundary around it. What English calls sanctifying here also means making the day different from ordinary time.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; distinct.
קָדוֹשׁ
The day’s set-apart quality is the result named by the command.
qodesh: Set-apartness; a sacred or set-apart place.
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun shows the same root naming a distinct condition or space, illuminating how the day is held apart.
שָׁמוֹר
shamor
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
To guard, watch, or keep.
“Guard” in this verse is shamor. The command to keep the Sabbath carries the sense of guarding it. The day’s boundary is watched over so its rest does not disappear into ordinary time.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: A watcher or guard.
שֹׁמֵר
This branch makes the protective sense of keeping visible.
mishmeret: A charge, watch, or guarded duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The shared root links keeping the day with maintaining a protected charge.
THE PATTERN
Set-apart time is marked by cessation, giving life an interval outside ongoing labor.
And God blessed the seventh day and set it apart, for on it he had stopped from all his work which God had created and made.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.For the one who has entered into his settling has himself also settled from his own works, as God did from his.THE THREAD
And God blessed the seventh day and set it apart, for on it he had stopped from all his work which God had created and made.Genesis uses the same Hebrew root, שבת (sh-b-t), for ceasing from work, and pairs that cessation with setting the day apart. Deuteronomy carries the pairing into your time: stopping is what marks the day as distinct.
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