What Does Exodus 20:8 Mean?
Remember the sabbath day, to set it apart.
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
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.THE KEY
The day is set apart through stopping: the root of “sabbath” names cessation, giving holiness a boundary around labor.
THE MEANING
This verse gives time a boundary: labor does not claim every day, and the Sabbath is held in memory as set apart. Its holiness takes the shape of cessation, making room for a day that is not defined by work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A day matters only for what it produces.
THE ROOT
שַׁבָּת
shabbat
GROWS FROM
שבת
To cease or stop.
“Sabbath” grows from the root of ceasing, so the day’s set-apartness is bound to work coming to a stop. The English word can sound like a label for a day; the Hebrew keeps the action of cessation inside it.
ALSO GROWS
shāvat: To cease or stop.
שָׁבַת
This verb shares the root שבת and makes clear that Sabbath names a stopping, not merely a calendar date.
shabbaton: A rest or cessation set apart.
שַׁבָּתוֹן
This related form carries the same cessation into a designated period of rest.
זָכוֹר
zākhōr
GROWS FROM
זכר
To remember or call to mind.
The command to remember uses the root זכר, which also gives Hebrew words for remembrance and memorial. Here remembering the Sabbath keeps its distinct boundary present in awareness, rather than letting it disappear into the ordinary flow of work.
ALSO GROWS
zākhar: To remember or call to mind.
זָכַר
This verb shares the root זכר and is the form underlying the command in the verse.
zikkārōn: Remembrance or memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
This noun shows the same root taking shape as something held in memory.
hizkîr: To mention or bring to mind.
הִזְכִּיר
This related form links remembering with bringing something into awareness.
לְקַדְּשׁוֹ
ləqaddəšō
GROWS FROM
קדש
To set apart or make distinct.
“set it apart” in this verse is ləqaddəšō. The root behind “holy” carries the sense of being set apart. The verse connects that distinction to a particular day: time itself can be marked as different from the ordinary working rhythm.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: Set apart or distinct.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective shares the root קדש and describes the quality the day receives.
qōdesh: That which is set apart; sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun gives the root’s quality a concrete name.
miqdāsh: A place set apart.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This related word shows the same root marking a place as distinct, just as the verse marks a day.
THE PATTERN
A set-apart day interrupts labor so life is not owned by production.
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.Remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out from there with a gripping hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to guard the sabbath day.He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.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.The Hebrew verb translated “rested” comes from the same root, שבת, as “sabbath.” The command to remember this day carries the same pattern: work reaches its limit, and time is set apart.
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