What Does Exodus 30:29 Mean in the King James?

And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.

Exodus 30:29 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Hebrew root for setting something apart also names its holiness and the holiness carried through touch: here, set-apartness moves.

THE MEANING

Being set apart changes what contact means: what is consecrated carries that status to whatever touches it. Holiness here is not only a quality held by an object; it reaches beyond it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the assumption that touching what is set apart leaves the status of the toucher unchanged.

THE ROOT

וְקִדַּשְׁתָּ

veqiddashta

GROWS FROM

קדש

q-d-sh

To set apart, consecrate, or make sacred.

The verb translated “sanctify,” the phrase “most holy,” and the final “shall be holy” all draw on ⁨קדש⁩. The verse presents consecration as a status that extends through contact: what is set apart affects what touches it.

ALSO GROWS

qadash: To be set apart or become sacred.

קָדַשׁ

The same root links the act of setting apart to the changed status described at the end of the verse.

qodesh: Holiness or a sacred thing.

קֹדֶשׁ

This is the noun behind “holy” in the phrase “most holy,” showing that the verse names both the act and the resulting state with the same root.

miqdash: Sanctuary, a place set apart as sacred.

מִקְדָּשׁ

The sanctuary carries the same root into a place designated as sacred, echoing how consecration marks the objects in this verse.

THE PATTERN

Set-apartness is shown as a status that extends through contact and relationship.

Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

Exodus 29:37 · KJVThe altar’s consecration and the holiness of what touches it follow the same pattern as the objects in Exodus 30:29.

Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place.

Leviticus 6:27 · KJVContact with what is set apart carries a consequence, while the garment’s contact with blood also receives careful treatment.

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.

1 Corinthians 7:14 · KJVThe verse describes set-apartness extending through relationship, beyond the person first named as holy.

THE THREAD

All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.

Leviticus 6:18 · KJV

Leviticus uses the same root, ⁨קדש⁩, for the holiness that follows touch. Seeing the root recur makes the link plain: the contact described here carries the status of what has been set apart.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us