What Does Leviticus 26:2 Mean in the King James?
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
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 command makes the Sabbath a guarded cessation, so sacredness occupies time as well as the sanctuary.
THE MEANING
The reader’s time and sacred space are both held in relation to the LORD: the Sabbath is guarded, and the sanctuary is regarded with awe. Set-apartness reaches into the rhythm of the week as well as the place of worship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that sacredness belongs only to a place: here, time itself is something guarded.
THE ROOT
שַׁבְּתֹתַי
shabbatotai
GROWS FROM
שבת
sh-b-t
Cease, stop.
“sabbaths” in this verse is shabbatotai. Shabbat grows from the verb for ceasing. Beside “keep,” it presents cessation as something deliberately guarded, a recurring boundary in time.
ALSO GROWS
shavat: Cease, stop.
שָׁבַת
This verb makes the Sabbath’s root sense visible: the day is marked by stopping.
shabbat: Sabbath; a cessation.
שַׁבָּת
The day carries the same root idea of ceasing, so its observance protects a pause in the week.
תִּשְׁמֹרוּ
tishmeru
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
Watch over, guard, keep watch.
“keep” in this verse is tishmeru. The verb for keeping comes from the language of guarding and watching. The Sabbath is treated as a charge entrusted to care, making the pause something preserved in the rhythm of life.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watcher, keeper.
שׁוֹמֵר
The watcher’s role gives “keep” the sense of attentive protection.
mishmeret: Guard duty, charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows how guarding can mean holding responsibility for something entrusted.
מִקְדָּשִׁי
miqdashi
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart, consecrated.
The sanctuary’s name grows from the root for what is set apart. Paired with the Sabbath, it marks both a place and a recurring span of time as distinct.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart, sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
This branch names the quality carried by the sanctuary.
qodesh: Holiness, sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
This branch shows that the sanctuary belongs to a wider language of set-apartness.
THE PATTERN
What is set apart is marked across both recurring time and the space where divine presence dwells.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?THE THREAD
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.“Keep” uses the same shamar root as Leviticus, and Exodus names the guarded Sabbath as a sign. Its closing word “sanctify” shares the q-d-sh root with “sanctuary,” linking protected time with being set apart.
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